


Thief-Nin Sakura

by Hemerodromus



Category: Naruto
Genre: (don't tell anyone though), BAMF Haruno Sakura, Chakra experimentation (Naruto), Children beating the snot out of each other, Chuunin Exams, Corpse-Looting, Corpses, F/F, Hyoton, Jiraiya is more competent than he acts, Kakashi is secretly a good teacher, Kakashi's Questionable Teaching, Kekkei Genkai work differently here, Kekkei Genkai | Bloodline Limit, Orochimaru is like a weird uncle, Paperwork, Sakura is a HUGE Nerd, Sakura's chakra control is nonsense, Shout out to Todoroki Shoto, Stealing kekkei genkai, Tenzou is probably a better role model than Kakashi, Training Montages, the creepy kind
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:01:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 11
Words: 28,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26346031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hemerodromus/pseuds/Hemerodromus
Summary: An AU wherein kekkei genkai are not just inheritable.When Sakura was given to Kakashi alongside Naruto, and Sasuke, she did not know that she was the only student destined to be molded according to Kakashi's nindo.  Naruto was always going to be Jiraiya's apprentice, and Sasuke needed to follow the traditions of the Uchiha clan in order to preserve their techniques.  Sakura was Kakashi's alone to shape.This is the story of Sakura Haruno as she becomes the new version of the Copy-Nin, the Thief-Nin.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura & Hatake Kakashi, Haruno Sakura/Yamanaka Ino, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 113
Kudos: 703





	1. Kakashi’s Exciting Corpse-Looting Lesson!

**Author's Note:**

> This is a SakuIno fic, and it will focus on Sakura stealing kekkei genkai for fun and profit.
> 
> Fair warning, there will be some body horror much later in this story, although I will put a warning before those chapters.
> 
> Lines of dialogue in italics is generally Inner Sakura talking.

The bridge was a mess when the fighting ended. Forty or so dead mercenaries, ten construction workers’ corpses, Zabuza, Haku, and the pile of meat formerly known as Gato positively coated the stonework. All told, there were about twenty-five times as many dead bodies as Sakura had seen in her entire life up to that point. As evidenced by the pool of vomit at (and partially on) her feet, it was stomach-turning. Amid the killing field, Kakashi cheerfully whistled while he rinsed Sasuke’s numerous new piercings with rubbing iodine. If Sakura were not already certain that Kakashi was gross and terrible, this absolutely confirmed it. Sasuke was shaking slightly where he sat, between Kakashi and Sakura, staring fixedly across the bridge at where Naruto was happily chatting with Inari and the crowd of cheering locals.

As Naruto escorted Tazuna back to his home, Sakura had little to do while she kept watch during Sasuke’s treatment. Kakashi ordered Sasuke to stay on the bridge, since senbon wounds tend to tear and get infected if not treated immediately, and he just ordered Sakura to stand watch. She felt strangely detached after throwing up. Sakura’s mind would not stop replaying the mission while she waited and standing watch might as well be her official role on the team, judging by how this mission went. For all that it spares her the disgusting parts of the job, sweat, blood, etc., Sasuke seemed to like her even less now. Maybe if she found some way to contribute (without exerting herself physically) next time...?

All at once Kakashi interrupted her thoughts by appearing less than an inch from her face in a swirl of leaves, and she fell on her backside in surprise. Before she even got out an indignant cry, Kakashi drawled in her face, “Well, Sakura-chaaaan~, since you are mostly fresh and Sasuke-kun is on his way back now, I think now would be a good time to give you a lesson! This is one the boys will get eventually, but it requires serious book smarts, and its mostly taught at higher ranks, since it requires more maturity. Do you think you can handle that?”

Sure enough, Sasuke had stood up and was picking his way through the sea of corpses to get off the bridge, looking vaguely like a mummy with all his bandages. Sakura blinked Kakashi’s praise for her intelligence and maturity; then again, he did have good things to say about her tree-walking. _Cha! Finally, he’s going to teach me something! Something all my own that I can impress Sasuke with!_ She glanced around at all of the dead people before answering, “Uhm, sure, Kakashi-sensei, but can we do it somewhere else? There are a lot of bodies here.”

Kakashi’s visible grin through his mask sent a chill racing down her spine, “I’m afraid not, Sakura-chan! After all, the bodies are the lesson!”

The next four hours were more disgusting and degrading than any of the thirty-odd D-rank missions they have been assigned so far. At first, Sakura stared blankly at her sensei, incredulous that even he would make her do something this gross. What followed his announcement was the most exact and thorough lesson she had ever experienced, in the academy or elsewhere, with special attention paid to how to handle the bodies themselves. Kakashi would not let her leave until every body had been searched and cremated, although he performed the fire jutsu to burn the corpse pile.

Her stomach was empty of vomit by the fifth corpse, and she became increasing coated in disgusting fluids even after that. Kakashi’s chipper familiarity with the process of stripping corpses brought home how normal this was for him, driving Sakura to wonder exactly how many people he had killed. When he oh so helpfully dumped a bucket of water on her after the makeshift pyre was alight, she could not bring herself to be particularly upset at being soaked to the skin. It was the first time she felt clean throughout the whole “lesson”.

Despite feeling increasingly disconnected and unsettled, Sakura had absorbed a shocking amount of information from Kakashi, all having to do with how to clean up after a ninja battle. The most calming part of the experience was the familiarity of the rote memorization of regulations and technical details, sending her mind back to the academy and reminding her that Iruka _had_ discussed battlefield cleanup, but as something only chunnin-ranked ninja and above needed to learn. Every time she started to slow down, slack off, or turn away in disgust, Kakashi was right next to her, dragging her hands physically into the blood and bile, and showing her a new detail of searching a corpse or using a storage scroll. At first, she shrieked, but by the end, she found herself unsettlingly enthralled, as he had moved into discussing the kind of traps that ninja sometimes applied to their own bodies.

Exhausted by the work of ‘prize-collecting,’ as Kakashi so helpfully put it, Sakura needed to be carried back by Kakashi along with the newly filled sealing scrolls containing anything of interest on the bodies, as well as Gato’s head, Zabuza, and Haku. When they arrived, Naruto was busy celebrating with Inari, Tsunami, and Tazuna in his usual boisterous manner. Kakashi passed them by before any of them realizes they were back and set her down along with the pile of scrolls in her room. He glanced down at her with his visible eye, and said, “Great work, Sakura-chan! Now, you have until tomorrow night to organize these scrolls by what’s in them and check for any time-sensitive information in them. I’m going to check on Sasuke-kun, but I’ll make sure to come check on your progress before you call it a night, so better get started!”

Sakura is not aware of a time as Kakashi’s student that she has hated him more than this moment. _I’m going to tear that mask off and feed him his damn scrolls!_ Her right eye twitches slightly as she began to wind up to hurl one of the scrolls at him when his left hand landed on her head. His eye no longer curved in his strange eye-smile, and his voice was as kind as she had ever heard it, “This mission was your first brush with death, so I know you’re feeling a little fragile right now. I promise that doing this will help.”

With that, he vanished, leaving Sakura in damp clothes, sitting stunned on the floor beside a pile eighty-two scrolls. _Was Kakashi just…nice?_


	2. Being a paper ninja means reading, don’t you know?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Sakura does her homework and makes a discovery.

Sakura’s first thought was sleep, which claimed her as soon as she had changed and cleaned herself of the remaining traces of the bridge. Her sleep was empty and quiet, without dreams or other disturbances, and when she woke in the morning, only the sight of the scrolls and her utterly ruined clothes from yesterday convinced her that the bridge was not a nightmare. Dragging herself up, she pulled on her backup clothes, a red skirt and a sleeveless red top, and slouched down the stairs to eat breakfast. Sasuke and Naruto were both already down, stuffing themselves and glaring at each other on and off. Naruto delightedly cried out, “Sakura-chan! I didn’t see you last night! Kakashi just said you helped clean up and that you were already asleep when he came down, dattebayo!”

Across from Naruto, Sasuke stiffened slightly under his layer of bandages and inspected Sakura ( _!!!!_ ) for a moment before turned back to his food. Just as Naruto began badgering her, Kakashi spoke up, apparently directly behind her, “Good morning! Today, Naruto, you will be with me on the bridge, while Sasuke and Sakura stay behind. We’re going to have so much fun hauling rocks!”

Sakura jumped at Kakashi’s voice from directly above her head, and leapt to the side, toppling over a chair. _In front of Sasuke! I’m going to kill that scarecrow!_ She was slightly gratified that Naruto and Sasuke seemed at least a little surprised, although they were not falling over themselves like her. Sasuke grunted and returned to his rice, while Naruto launched into his usual barrage of whining and moaning at the prospect of Kakashi’s idea of fun. Sakura could not entirely suppress her sympathy, since Kakashi loved to coerce her into doing heavy lifting whenever they had a D-rank. She was almost certain it was just so that she would get sweaty and gross in front of Sasuke.

When Naruto and Kakashi left, Sasuke disappeared before she could get a word in edgewise. Sakura sighed and went back up to her room. The stack of scrolls against the wall was all she had to do today, so she took a deep breath and began sorting through them. She immediately set aside the three that held corpses, not wanting to dwell on yesterday. The remaining seventy-nine were divided between fifty-two scrolls of weapons and equipment, twenty-two scrolls of money and goods, and five scrolls of information. She decided to get the boring part out of the way first and go through the gear.

Most of the weapons were either polearms, oversized “idiot-swords” as Kakashi had called them, or small knives and senbon. All told there were twenty swords and polearms of sufficient quality to be worth keeping, forty kunai and other knives, and around three hundred senbon. The sheer number that Haku managed to throw over the course of a fifteen-minute fight was horrifying and made Sakura question her own throwing skills. _If someone our age can throw senbon that fast and still hit what they’re aiming for, I’m way, way to slow!_ Sakura contemplated the swords, all of which were useless without at least four years of instruction, which made them useless for most non-specialized ninja, and re-sealed them. Zabuza’s enormous sword had been set aside by Kakashi, who explained that, as a sword of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, it was impossible to seal in a normal scroll, and even more dangerous to be seen carrying, so they would be leaving it behind, to be retrieved at the Hokage’s discretion. After discarding the broken weapons, sorting them by type, and consolidating the knives and senbon into fewer scrolls, Sakura had a set of thirty weapons scrolls, none of which were particularly important, and which were destined for Konoha’s quartermaster, who would trade them in for a small bounty for the team.

The scrolls of goods were mostly filled with Gato’s waterlogged jewelry and Haku’s surprisingly lovely and extensive selection of hairpins, all of which were poisoned according to Kakashi’s warnings from the night before, and a small set of beautifully carved bone brooches in the shape of snowflakes. All told, they also retrieved 167,800 ryo from the fallen, which Kakashi estimated would cover about a fifth of Tazuna’s debt to the village for lying about the mission rank. The collection of twenty-two scrolls shrank to four scrolls, one of which was marked as important, since it had all the money. The jewelry would be appraised in the village, and they would be divided among the team, or sold, and proceeds split among the team, a perk of being a field operative.

Of the remaining five scrolls, only one was a sealing scroll, and she spent the rest of her morning until lunch sorting through the various accounting books in that scroll. While she was hauling the cleaned corpses into a makeshift pyre off the bridge, Kakashi had retrieved Gato from the water, and taken a few minutes to take anything of interest from his boat. This sealing scroll contained twelve volumes of accounting books, most of which covered increasingly illegal trade deals, embargoes, and scams, to the point the Sakura felt mildly ill reading through them. Her parents had shared the generalities of the business world with her as she grew up, and she knew from her father’s lessons on the consequences of scams that Gato was responsible for a lot of poverty, starvation, and slavery. Two of the accounting books covered illegal operations in the Land of Fire, so they were sealed into a scroll marked as priority. All of Gato’s books would end up in the hands of the Intelligence division, who would assign the team a reward based on the value of the information.

Lunch was a mostly silent affair, with Sasuke appearing, eating, and leaving with barely more than a nod of thanks in Tsunami’s direction, whereas Sakura stuck around to help collect the dishes. Her mind was caught up in the calculations that she had been trawling through, and it was, frankly, the most interesting puzzle she had had to think about since graduation. _Cha! I’m such a paper-ninja…_

After wrapping up Gato’s finances, Sakura opened the three scrolls they had found on Zabuza’s body. The first two were in code, and after applying the basic code identification techniques that she learned in the academy, she identified the code as a variation on the standard Mist encryption, so she marked that down and set them aside. They were not a priority, given that they seemed to be at least a year old. The final scroll was his contract with Gato, which made mention of the “Mist rebellion”. That sounded like important intel, so she marked that as priority, and moved on to the last scroll.

The last scroll was contained in an old locking wooden case. She had found a matching key to hidden in Haku’s hair bun, after Kakashi made her sift through all the corpses’ hair. Within the scroll was a long, complex description of the Hyoton style, its core jutsu, and Hyoton-specific training techniques. Sakura almost closed it up and packed it away then and there, since Hyoton was one of the kekkei genkai mentioned at the academy as being native to the Lands of Water and Frost. Nothing in the scroll would be useful to anyone without the kekkei genkai, so it was probably a waste of time to read further for a native Konohagakure. _Then again, maybe something in here explains his speed and accuracy with senbon…Maybe I’m not quite so far behind?_

Skimming through the scroll, Sakura found that Hyoton did allow a ninja to move substantially faster by cycling ice-aligned chakra through their limbs, which explained Haku’s speed but implied that his accuracy was just a product of long practice. At the end of the scroll, Sakura found something different from the list of increasingly complex ice jutsu. It appeared to be a medical procedure, wherein one ninja directs Suiton and Fūton Chakra simultaneously onto another ninja’s back, who then guides the chakras into their spine through the third chakra gate, the Gate of Life. The procedure called for, on average, two months of chakra control exercises focused on the spinal tenketsu, and a high level of chakra control to begin with. She reread it, looking for an explanation for what the technique actually _did_. Most of the writing focused on the technical details, but there, at the very end, it stated, “And so the subject shall become an inheritor of ice-natured chakra. Should our clan ever be reduced drastically in numbers, this technique can be used to rebuild.”

 _What!? You can_ do _that? Just give someone a kekkei genkai with a couple of months and crazy chakra control?_

Sakura stared at the scroll for a few moments, stunned. She reread the technique, realizing how simple it would be for a jonin to give a viable ninja the Hyoton. As she set the scroll in the priority pile, she wondered if every kekkei genkai could be created like the Hyoton.

_Kakashi used that Suiton dragon on Zabuza, and he might be able to use Fūton too, if what Zabuza said about him copying techniques is true. Chakra control is kind of my biggest strength._

_…I could do this._


	3. Whoops, you’re a kekkei genkai thief now, huh?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sakura's frustrations and Kakashi's somewhat twisted encouragement lead to a questionable decision and a new chapter in Sakura's life.

The Hyoton scroll was the only thing Sakura could think about for the rest of the mission. At first it was just a passing fantasy, to have her own kekkei genkai, so she could stand on her own alongside Sasuke ( _and Naruto, I guess_ ). After Kakashi checked her work organizing the spoils from the fight, he charged her with keeping the pile of scrolls, aside from the money scroll, until they arrived back in Konoha. Kakashi had Sakura and Naruto helping on the bridge for three days, at which point he had Sasuke join them. At the bridge, all of them were forced to do chakra control exercises while helping the workers. Naruto was still working on vertical-walking, since Kakashi was apparently dissatisfied with how wobbly he was when he was distracted from walking, and Sasuke was switched back to vertical-walking after a couple of disastrous attempts at water-walking, much to his fuming anger. Sakura ended up picking up water-walking by the end of the first day, and Kakashi told her to focus on the leaf sticking exercise while water-walking.

Within three days, she was bored out of her mind. _I can water-walk in my sleep at this point, and sticking leaves to myself doesn’t actually need any concentration at all now. I had this sort of stuff down before I graduated!_

Kakashi’s response to a request for something more complex was to laugh, ruffle her hair, and tell her to “go looking for inspiration, Sakura-chan!”

 _Cha! I guess he doesn’t treat the boys any differently at least._ At the base of the bridge, Sasuke had just been forced to go back to hauling stone up the side of the bridge after failing to convince Kakashi that he was ready to start water-walking practice. Naruto fell off the side of the bridge while laughing at him, landing with a huge splash. _Serves him right for mocking Sasuke-kun!_

Needless to say, Sakura decided to break out the tenketsu exercises from the end of the Hyoton scroll that night. The control exercises for her spinal tenketsu were simple enough for her to learn, but needed focus to master, so it was at least a step up from the Kakashi’s useless advice. For the rest of the two weeks they spent on the mission, she practiced moving her chakra in and out of her spine with ever increasing precision. All throughout, in the back of her mind was the whispered promise of her own kekkei genkai.

When the bridge was completed (and dedicated to _Naruto_ of all people) the team departed for Konoha with thanks from the citizens of Wave. The return journey was much faster, with Kakashi leading them directly through the trees rather than following the winding road. Naruto and Sasuke were consistently assigned watch together at night, with Kakashi’s cheerful “Don’t kill each other without waking us up first, kids!” which was consistently answered with grumbling from both boys. Kakashi kept her company on her shift on watch each night, and, a few hours before dawn on the final night, he addressed her out of the blue, “So you want to be able to use Hyoton, eh Sakura-chan? You seem to have the chakra exercise down, from what I’ve seen over the last week. Maa, great initiative, but maybe just check with me before you start those sorts of exercises next time. Stealing kekkei genkai is fun if you can do it, but it can be pretty risky.”

Sakura froze. _He knew? This whole time!? Wait…risky?_ She glanced back to where the boys were sleeping, then hissed back, “T-They’re just chakra exercises, sensei. It’s not like moving my chakra around my back is going to hurt me!”

Kakashi’s eye curved up, and Sakura’s heart sank in her chest before he even answered, “Maa, Sakura-chan, chakra exercises near any of the chakra gates can damage the coils that pass through them! If your control were any worse, you could have fractured some vertebrae too. If you were as rough around the edges as Naruto, they might even explode outright! There’s a ninja in Konoha who used to routinely shatter his own bones trying to use his chakra gates, so I’ve actually seen it happen. We used to have a betting pool on when he would break his back again! Good times, all around.”

 _Oh kami…_ The blood drained from Sakura’s face, and she felt slightly faint, even as Kakashi laughed. He shrugged nonchalantly, “Either way, no harm done this time. I can probably borrow a lab from R&D or T&I once we’re back in the village tomorrow to perform the procedure in the Hyoton scroll! I even know a jonin who can check your work before we start.”

The rest of the night was spent in a daze, as Sakura tried not to think about her back exploding, and Kakashi flipped through his godawful porn, giggling. When dawn came, and they could see Konoha’s walls swiftly rising above the tree line, Sakura had become less subdued, as thoughts of having her own kekkei genkai filled her mind. _It’s going to happen! I’m going to have my own kekkei genkai!_

Arriving in the village meant going through four layers of bureaucracy to finish reporting in. First, they checked in at the gate, where a pair of chunnin checked that they were who they said they were, and then the whole group trekked to the Hokage Tower, where they reported to the mission desk, who immediately redirected them to the Intelligence division, since their mission was mis-ranked. At the Intelligence division building, halfway across the village, the staff took their statements about the mission, collected and noted down the spoils that Sakura had so meticulously sorted and labeled, and sent them back to the Hokage Tower to debrief with Sandaime personally, as is normal procedure for a genin team’s first C-rank. The Hokage and Kakashi were both content to let Naruto rant and rave for half an hour about their mission, not letting anyone get a word in edgewise. Much to Sakura’s annoyance he was on the other side of Sasuke from her, so she could not hit him to get him to let Kakashi debrief properly. That said, she was pretty sure that the hand that Kakashi was using to fidget with his book might be performing jonin sign language, so the Hokage might be getting his debrief anyway.

The Sandaime passed the debriefing smiling, shuffling papers, and emitting the occasional chuckle. Finally, he dismissed them, “Excellent work all of you! I am proud of your progress as shinobi of Konohagakure, and I will raise the mission’s rank to an A, with the associated pay and benefits. Now, I believe you will all want to reacquaint yourselves with the village, so you may go.”

By the time they were done, it was noon, and Kakashi dismissed the boys to unpack and rest until tomorrow but performed a shunshin while holding Sakura’s shoulder before she could react. They appeared outside of the T&I building, a nondescript grey building in the center of the civilian housing district, where a similarly nondescript brown-haired ninja with an extended hitai-ate caught Sakura by the shoulder as she tumbled forward from the unexpected shunshin. He glanced at her then addressed Kakashi, in a neutral voice, “Sempai, what did you need?”

Kakashi’s smug grin was audible in his answer, “Sakura-chan here has been doing some fun control exercises, and I’d like you to check her work, since you have some experience, Tenzō. It’ll be just like when you were a kid!”

Tenzō paled slightly and looked at Sakura with that neutral expression as he led them into the T&I building, passing through four different locked doors until they reach a nondescript white-tiled room with a medical examination table in the center. Twice, the staff verified their identities, and Kakashi produced a paper allowing them access to a lab from his little orange book. Once they were in, Tenzō directed Sakura to take a seat on the table, and walked around behind her, saying, “Alright, now that we’re behind privacy seals, which kekkei genkai, and what does it require?”

Kakashi laid out a scroll on the table, upon which was written a transcription of the Hyoton scroll, with a list of notes, all in Kakashi’s loose, messy handwriting. As she stared incredulously at his endless doodles of puppies running along the side of the scroll, he gestured to Sakura, and said, “Walk us through it, Sakura-chan. I want to make sure you know the steps.”

Sakura gulped, then began to speak, “Hyoton, Tenzō-san. Assuming I have good enough chakra control, and I’ve done the exercises correctly, then I need to pull both Suiton and Fūton chakra through the tenketsu above the Gate of Life in my spine at the same time until my chakra system starts producing Hyoton chakra there.”

Tenzō nodded thoughtfully, then glanced at Kakashi, before addressing Sakura directly, “You are probably not aware of how all of this really works, since you are still a genin, and sempai never bothers to explain anything unless he has to. What you want to do is call kekkei genkai theft and is illegal to perform with in-village kekkei genkai without direct written and verbal permission from the Hokage. If the Hyoton bloodline in the Land of Water had not been disavowed by the Mizukage, this would also paint a target on your back. You would be informed of this upon reaching jonin rank, normally, but exceptions are made for candidates with extremely high chakra control, like yourself. For the record, never tell anyone below jonin rank what we are about to do. If anyone asks, you awakened your bloodline on your first C-rank.”

_That was more direct and sensible than anything Kakashi-sensei has said since he started teaching us. Why can’t Tenzō-san be our teacher?_

_Wait. This is normally a JONIN rank thing?!?_

_…does Kakashi really think I can do this?_

Kakashi chipped in, his eye curved up, “Yep, I’ll be putting in the paperwork to list you as having distant family in the Land of Water, as a cover once we’re done here. This sort of thing is attempted at least once a decade, so we have a form for lying about your family origins and everything!”

Tenzō then ran her through thirty different chakra control tests of increasing difficulty and complexity, most of which Sakura achieved on the first or second try. Once he was satisfied that she “wasn’t about to get herself killed,” he moved on to having her demonstrate her spinal tenketsu exercises, using a piece of chakra conductive paper to measure how precisely she could control the chakra moving along her back. Kakashi elbowed Tenzō at this point, saying, “See, she’s good to go. Sakura-chan, are you ready?”

 _It’s now or never! Shannaro!_ Sakura nodded, as firmly as she could manage, and Kakashi placed his index fingers above and below the vertebra that housed the Gate of Life, and he began counting down. On one, Sakura began trying to channel chakra into the chakra gate, as Kakashi emitted the first traces of Suiton and Fūton chakra. As the chakra entered her tenketsu and her body started to process it, she started to feel cold, and her breath came out in a frosty puff in front of her. The cold spread swiftly along her spine and through her body like icy tendrils were worming their way along her nerves. After roughly a minute, she started shivering, her teeth chattering. The cold spread through her blood and muscles, getting progressively worse and worse. Just as her back went completely numb from the cold, Kakashi’s chakra started moving differently within her, being absorbed before it could even reach the chakra gate, and the numbing cold stopped spreading, leaving her body tingling. Her skin had gone from pale to faintly blue tinged at the extremities, and her muscles were tense and trembling.

As she unclenched her hands from the exam table, she found the leather cracking, frozen stiff and brittle beneath her fingers. She held her hands up in wonder as frost drifted from her skin, fingers still shaking from the cold. For most of her time in the academy and afterwards, Sakura had had her mediocrity thrown in her face from all sides, first by the instructors, then the other students, then Ino-pig, then by her team. She worked hard to prove them wrong, of course, but she had always been a paper-ninja. She never expected to have any special chakra skills. _I did it! I have the Hyoton! Sasuke-kun will respect me now!_

Tenzō and Kakashi helped her down from the table, with more gentleness than Kakashi had ever displayed before. He guided her out of the room, speaking softly, “We’ll go and have the hospital give you a checkup, then you can head home and rest. You did a good job, Sakura-chan, and I think you’ll like where this leads you.”

Sakura, feeling a little out of it, squinted at Kakashi, “Who are you and what have you done with Kakashi-sensei? He’s never this nice.”

Kakashi giggled in response, “Sakura-chan, you wound me! I’m always nice! I think you just don’t appreciate your hard-working sensei enough. Don’t worry though, your training regimen to get your kekkei genkai under control should give you a proper appreciation of my efforts!”

Sakura groaned as they stepped into the lobby of the T&I building, drawing the attention of the pair of blondes that were entering the building. Ino stepped away from her father as he went further into the building, waving to Kakashi in passing. She sauntered up to Sakura, head cocked mockingly and voice teasing, “Forehead! How lovely to see you back in the village! I heard you had such an awful first C-rank, it’s such a shame. If you want to quit, I’m sure nobody would blame you. That way someone more deserving could be on Sasuke-kun’s team!”

Sakura bit out with a stutter from the shivers, “A-As if, Ino-Pig! I’m not g-going anywhere!”

Before she could continue, Kakashi started dragging her out the door by the back of her collar, cutting in, “Now, now, girls, I’m sure you can have your catfight over broody boys later!”

As they left, Kakashi dragging her away while she tried to hit him, Ino called out cockily after her, “Sounds like you aren’t so sure, Forehead! No shame in quitting while you’re ahead!”

_Cha! I’ll show her! I’ve got my own special ability to Sasuke-kun now!_


	4. Don’t worry, we’ve got the Sandaime’s permission!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kakashi teaches!
> 
> Also, a glimpse behind the curtain.

The hospital checkup was mercifully brief, after which Sakura went home to collapse into bed, absently noting that her parents were out somewhere. She slept until dawn the next day bundled in an extra blanket. Her whole body ached when she pulled herself out of bed. As she brushed her teeth washed up, she noted absently that she had kicked off her blanket and sheets sometime in the night, and was still feeling a bit too warm, even in her summer sleepwear. In the shower, she ended up using only cold water, after being jolted awake by the sheer heat of the hot water. What was once tepid felt almost too hot to tolerate on her skin, although there were no signs of actual burns from the scalding hot water. She ended up pulling on a new outfit for the day, since her old one was far too thoroughly trashed to recover. The top displayed her family’s crest, a white circle, right under her chin and on her back, had a high neckline, and lacked sleeves. Below, she wore Konoha-issued armored black pants hemmed to knee-length. She was annoyed that she lacked any armored skirts, but she could live until she had a chance to go shopping that evening. Grabbing the rest of her gear, she departed to meet her team.

When she arrived at the bridge where her team normally met, she was about ten minutes late, but she was still there before either of the boys. When they did show up, neither Sasuke nor Naruto were particularly talkative, as Naruto immediately fell back to sleep on the bridge, and Sasuke started throwing kunai at a tree, as was his habit in the mornings. For her part, Sakura decided to being the first exercise in the Hyoton scroll, and pulled out the copy, which Kakashi had left with her. Next to the first exercise, Kakashi had scrawled out that it should be done daily for at least a month, and ideally until it was something she could maintain constantly.

The exercise itself was extremely simple. She had to convert some of her chakra into ice-natured chakra and cycle it through the large chakra coils in her torso, arms, and legs. Given that the same exercise was taught in the academy once students mastered the leaf-sticking exercise, but with neutral chakra, the challenge was mostly in producing and maintaining ice-natured chakra within her body. Sitting cross-legged, Sakura began trying to change some of her chakra. She quickly discovered that the conversion itself was easy, but once it changed, it became harder to control and tried to exit her body via the nearest tenketsu. By the time Kakashi arrived, she had accidentally coated the surface of the bridge underneath her in ice produced by the chakra that had escaped her grasp.

Kakashi’s book shut with a snap, and he surveyed his genin as Naruto jerked awake from the noise. He gestured to the three of them with his book, and began, “Alright, kiddies, it’s time to change things up! Sasuke-kun wasn’t the only one to activate a kekkei genkai in Wave, you see. Sakura-chan also activated a dormant ability, quite unexpectedly.”

Sakura stilled as she felt the other two turn their eyes on her back. She reached across her chest to grab her left arm, and spoke up, “Ah, yeah, it turns out I have some, uh, distant family from the Land of Water, and apparently, uh, they passed on the same ice-natured chakra affinity as Haku had…”

She turned and pointed to the slowly thawing patch of ice where she had been meditating, and she saw the boys stare at it for a few moments, before Naruto burst out, “Whaaaaaaa!? You’re an ice-nin too? That’s crazy, Sakura-chan!”

Sasuke, on the other hand, was nodding, slowly, and spoke once Naruto petered out, “So encountering the Hyoton activates it then. This means we need to change how we fight, doesn’t it?”

Kakashi beamed at Sasuke and used his long reach to ruffle his hair before he could dodge, “Exactly! Before, I was letting you three experiment with team formations for the first two months, but now the Sandaime has passed down a new directive for Team 7. Congrats, you three are going to be on display for the Chunin Exam in two months! The Hokage has decided that you three are an ideal assault team, so I’m going to be shifting your training into high-gear.”

Sakura feels a lead weight settle in her stomach. So far, Kakashi had mostly been drilling them in teamwork exercises and polishing their taijutsu and basic ninjutsu. Even so, he had regularly run her into the ground physically, forced Naruto to perform chakra control exercises constantly, and made Sasuke maintain either the Henge or Bunshin jutsu whenever they were on D-ranks. He made a point of torturing them with their weak points, and now he was going to step it up? _…We’re gonna die._

Apparently, Naruto and Sasuke did not agree with her, as Naruto’s shouts of joy, and Sasuke’s smirk attested. Kakashi then proceeded to whip out three scrolls and tossed one to each of them. His eye curved in a smile, “I will be working with each of you in the afternoons as we have so far, but each of you have some tutors I’ve arranged for your mornings. Naruto-kun, the Hokage has designated you as a ninjutsu-specialist, despite your control issues, so you will be working one morning a week with me to learn a new jutsu, and the rest of your time with Ebisu-san, who will be drilling you in chakra control. If he isn’t satisfied with your work, no new jutsu.”

Naruto was like an open book, swinging from elated (ninjutsu-specialist), to ecstatic (new jutsu), to annoyed (Ebisu), and finally to horrified (no new jutsu). Kakashi spoke over Naruto’s immediate outburst, turning to Sasuke, “Sasuke-kun, you will be with me five days out of the week to train your sharingan, and you will be sparring with Team 9, headed by Maito Guy, the other two. The Hokage has decided that your training will focus almost exclusively on taijutsu until you are fully proficient in your sharingan.”

Sasuke’s expression was a closed off as it normally was, although he frowned slightly at the limitation to taijutsu. As Naruto’s protests as to “Ebisu’s perversions” winded down, he turned to Sakura, “You, Sakura-chan, will be dividing your time between Tenzō-san for six days and me for one day each week. You will be training in your kekkei genkai and precision throwing, as the Hokage has decided you will be the team’s mid- to long-range fighter until your skill with your kekkei genkai affords more options.”

Sakura sighed in relief as she accepted the scroll. At least it was not going to be taijutsu and bodybuilding. Throwing kunai, shuriken, and senbon was something she was entirely comfortable with. Before she could get too comfortable, Kakashi continued, “Also, we are going to be doing nothing but team formation training and missions in the afternoons. We have a two-month deadline by which to have you up to my standards for B-rank combat missions, which will be decided by my own little ‘Chunin Exam’ a week before the real thing. If you fail mine, I’ll decline to sign you up for the exam and relegate you to only D-ranks for three months straight!”

The scroll in her hand was spontaneously coated in ice. _Excuse me?!_

***

The Sandaime chuckled as he watched Team 7 explode in horrified complaints at Kakashi’s announcement. Across from him, Yamanaka Inoichi was also watching his crystal ball with a smirk. Hiruzen caught Inoichi’s gaze as it flicked up to him, and he released the remote-viewing jutsu. He settled his pipe in his palm after a long inhale, and simply said, “Your thoughts?”

Inoichi leaned back in his chair from where he had been hunched forward to watch, then answered, “She definitely has the right talents and the right sensei, but I think she needs some sort of goal to drive her development in the right direction. We have at least four in-village kekkei genkai that are poorly understood, and Sakura-chan has loved puzzles and thought experiments from when I met her at four years old. Assign her to one that could use some research. Worst case, she gets nowhere, but learns from the experience. Best case, she pulls an Orochimaru and deconstructs a kekkei genkai’s activation method from thin air, taking a huge step forward. Unlike previous candidates, your students included, she is starting training for this as a genin, so we have a chance to mold her approach and mindset more thoroughly.”

Hiruzen nodded, thinking on the matter for several long, silent minutes. Finally, he stamped the paper on his desk and handed it across, proclaiming, “Very well. Haruno Sakura is to be placed on track to be given kekkei genkai retrieval training under Hatake Kakashi until she reaches the rank of Jonin or Tokubetsu Jonin. You are her case worker, Inoichi, and this time you have one goal above all else. Keep her loyal. We will not have another renegade jutsu thief.”

Inoichi accepted the document, rolled it up, and bowed low to his Hokage. Without another word, he departed the Hokage tower, leaving Hiruzen to his thoughts. He eventually withdrew a heavily sealed scroll from his desk, undid the security seals, and spread the scroll on his desk. After a while, he nodded decisively, and wrote two messages that he sent off with messenger hawks an hour later.

***

The next month was relatively pleasant for Sakura. Tenzō-san proved to be a very direct but reasonable teacher, although he had a terrifyingly blank face when she annoyed him. He drilled her first with meditations, then with increasingly fast-paced taijutsu forms to acclimatize her to her new Hyoton chakra cycling technique. Four weeks after acquiring Hyoton, Sakura habitually maintained a steady flow of ice-natured chakra within her chakra coils whenever she was awake. She also learned rapidly that while it made her substantially faster, it did not improve her spatial awareness or self-control, as demonstrated by the five times Tenzō, Kakashi, or Naruto startled her into dodging into three trees, two walls, and a river. After having to chip her way out of her own ice flow, she forced herself to work on restraining her chakra cycling lest she over-react.

Meanwhile, Kakashi had steadily smoothed out her throwing technique and introduced her to Konoha’s senbon throwing forms. In addition, he drilled her on mathematics, anatomy, and chakra coil structure to augment her ability to gauge difficult shots and target weak points in both body and chakra. Where before, Kakashi’s teaching had been lackadaisical and vaguely cruel, his behavior had shifted to actively malicious. From the first morning session on, she was constantly in motion during the day, regardless of where she was. If she sat still, she was immediately targeted by Kakashi’s projectiles, always aimed to hurt but not injure. It got to the point that she was forced to eat while walking and convince Naruto to distract Kakashi when she needed to use the bathroom. At the same time, every time she missed a shot, Kakashi forced her into some sort of physical conditioning. Her once perfectly maintained skin gradually accrued hundreds of the miniscule silver freckles of senbon scarring, and her fingertips developed calluses, to her dismay. When Sasuke neither noticed not cared about her new blemishes, however, she was both frustrated and relieved. Kakashi did not give her a way to avoid them either way.

The next month was characterized by chakra exhaustion and a lot of accidentally frozen drinks and food. Tenzō, having been satisfied with her newfound skill in Hyoton-specific control from her cycling exercises, began her on the simple ice ninjutsu in the Hyoton scroll, as well as a few other jutsu stolen from enemy ninja in the previous wars. As she exercised her control over Hyoton chakra outside of her body, she found herself accidentally freezing things whenever she was tired or distracted, which was most of the time. Her underdeveloped chakra reserves grew steadily as she was forced to repeatedly exhaust them to master first the ice senbon jutsu, then the frozen ground jutsu, then the ice-skating technique, alongside a myriad of training techniques. The ice senbon jutsu was a ninjutsu which laced thrown senbon with ice-natured chakra for as long as it was maintained, allowing her to inflict instant frostbite from a distance. The frozen ground jutsu created a layer of slick ice on the ground at her feet, and when combined with the ice-skating technique, itself a variant on water-walking, Sakura could slide along the ground at shunshin speeds for minimal chakra cost, leaving a trail of treacherous terrain in her wake.

Kakashi’s methods did not change in the second month, beyond the naturally increasing difficulty of the forms he was teaching her, moving from single senbon throws to multi-senbon throws and extreme-range shots. As she practiced increasingly complex throwing forms with Kakashi, Inoichi began to drop by to help, as he was apparently one of the senbon throwing instructors for T&I. It honestly hurt Sakura a little to work with him, since it reminded her of when she would visit Ino as a kid and he taught them simple ninja tricks together. He had barely changed from her memories of childhood, and from his commentary during her training, he still met up with her father for lunch occasionally.

Throughout this time, the team continued to churn through two dozen D-rank missions and four C-rank missions. None even approached the mission in Wave in difficulty, with only two real fights overall. Both were against bandits, and they captured them within seconds of noticing the enemy. Their teamwork steadily shifted in dynamic as they were run into the ground daily by Kakashi’s brutal training schedules. Without even weekend breaks, Sakura found she lacked the energy to pursue Sasuke’s affections day-to-day, which led to the uncomfortable realization that he interacted with her almost twice as much when she was not lavishing him with her love. Sasuke and Naruto, on the other hand, seemed to become somehow even more competitive and friendlier at the same time. Naruto came into his own after an initial period of conflict with Ebisu, mastering eight new ninjutsu, all mid- to low-ranked Fūton or Katon. Sasuke’s body had gone from wiry to distinctly muscular, and he moved with a poise and speed that outstripped most Chunin, although he seemed to have developed an aversion to any and all green clothing for some reason unknown to Sakura. Kakashi kept snickering whenever Sasuke dodged away from someone wearing one of the green chunin vests common in Konoha.

Overall, they had come a long way in a short time, but there were also problems, primarily in the way the boys interacted with Sakura. As she interacted with them less due to sheer exhaustion, Naruto seemed less and less interested in asking her on dates, and while Sasuke spoke with her more, he seemed to be avoiding her when she was using her new kekkei genkai, which, by the time of Kakashi’s test, was most of the time.


	5. Fire plus ice equals what?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Success, equality, and jealousy.

From just within the tree line across the river, Ino watched from stealth as Team 7 congregated at training ground three near the trio of training posts. To her left and right were Shikamaru and Choji, although Shikamaru appeared to be asleep, and Choji was working his way through some jerky rather than watching. They had the day off, and Ino had decided to scope out the competition for the Chunin Exams in the coming week. Shikamaru had scoffed when she chose Team 7 as their target, muttering about Sasuke and girls, but they still ended up coming. The three genin of Team 7 were sharing what appeared to be a late breakfast together, Naruto chattering away about the ramen he was devouring while the other two ate in relative silence. Sakura appeared to be eating freeze-dried fruit, while Sasuke was having some sort of salad. All three appeared noticeably different from the last time Ino had seen them. Sasuke, her primary interest in this group, had adopted heavier armored clothing which seemed to hide an increase in musculature, judging by his movements. His clothing had shifted from blue and white to mostly blue, with long pants and sleeves. Naruto, on the other hand, appeared to have removed the sleeves from his hideous orange jumpsuit and reclaimed his goggles from before graduation, which now hung around his neck. Sakura seemed the most changed, as she now wore a shorter armored skirt which wrapped around the sides of a pair of calf-length armored capris. Her sandals had been exchanged for a pair of white open-toed boots, and her armored top was sleeveless. She appeared to have row upon row of tiny silvery studs running all over her top and skirt, and she now carried a pair of pouches on each hip.

Abruptly, Team 7’s strange sensei appeared before them as they were packing up their leftover food. He gesticulated to each of them, then delightedly announced, “Time for your test! You three are going to spar with each other. The goal is to go all out without injuring each other until all but one of you is immobilized! If any of you ends the fight with more than bruises and scratches, you will all fail, and if I feel like any of you aren’t giving your all, you will all fail! Thee, two, one, go!”

Then, as abruptly as he arrived, their sensei vanished. Immediately, Naruto exploded into a dozen of himself, each raising his goggles and charging Sasuke and Sakura. In the time it took the first to reach Sakura, Sasuke had already removed five of his six attackers in a flurry of strikes and flashing red eyes. The single remaining Naruto from his group was sent flying into the water, and Sasuke immediately turned and charged at Sakura. Sakura, mobbed by both Sasuke and a team of Naruto clones, crashed into the forest, leaving a line of reflective, misty ground behind her as she fled.

Beside Ino, Shikamaru perked up, “That looked like ice release. I didn’t know that Haruno-san had the Hyoton bloodline, did you?”

Ino shook her head as she followed Sasuke’s decimation of the remaining clones with her eyes, “She definitely didn’t have it growing up. It must’ve been dormant until recently, but it doesn’t seem to have done her much good.”

As Shikamaru leaned back again, the river exploded as a wave of Naruto clones flooded toward Sasuke, the front row performing a simple fire breath jutsu in tandem, while the backrow perform the Gale Palm jutsu, resulting in a wave of fire rippling toward Sasuke, pushing him back to the trees, from which he vaulted over the firewall and began a twirling taijutsu assault on the forty or so copies of Naruto. His taijutsu style had evolved from the domineering efficiency of his time in the Academy into a near-prescient dance. Every single movement, strike, and block redirected at least one Naruto’s strike or jutsu into another, until they had practically annihilated themselves with a barrage of wind ninjutsu and kicks. After five minutes of harried combat, Sasuke stood pristine over the last remaining Naruto, who he had caught trying to retreat and make more clones. The only sign of the fight the Uchiha bore was his sweat and heavy breathing as he trussed up his teammate with some ninja-wire. Naruto, meanwhile, was soaked in mud and swearing up a storm at his loss.

Choji hummed around his jerky, “That was really clean taijutsu. I think he would beat all of our class at this point in a pure melee.”

Ino nodded decisively, “Well duh, it’s Sasuke-kun! Anyway, we should keep an eye on Naruto in the exam, those were solid clones, and he had a lot of ninjutsu. I’m not even sure he’s all that tired.”

Shikamaru shook his head, “Nah. Naruto’s approach will be obvious, and I don’t think we need to worry as long as we have any plan to avoid or trap him. My worry is Haruno-san.”

Ino and Choji both turned to stare at him, and Ino’s voice was confused when she responded, “Forehead? But she just ran away! She’s no match for Naruto, let alone Sasuke-kun!”

Shikamaru wordlessly pointed at the trees at the opposite edge of the training ground where Sakura had fled. As Ino and Choji turned to look, a wave of cold mist began to flow out from the trees, which now appeared to be rooted in a growing field of ice. Sasuke began approaching warily, a kunai in each hand, and almost immediately had to deflect a dozen hissing silver flashes which resolved into senbon once they were planted in the surrounding ground. As he stopped advancing, Sakura slid out of the woods on a growing trail of ice, the ground wreathed with a cloud of frost. She circled Sasuke faster than he could turn, hurling wave after wave of hissing senbon at him, which he nonetheless knocked out of the air, his eyes flashing red as he struggled to keep up with the pink and red blur that Sakura became as she formed a complex pattern of ice on the ground around him. Every time Sasuke tried to advance, Sakura was already changing direction and circling around him, her reflexes and speed almost twice as good as his, approaching shunshin speeds. Finally, Sasuke saw an opening and blasted out an enormous fireball directly in front of her, which she pirouetted over, her barrage ceasing momentarily. As she landed, Sasuke leapt for her, only to land in a cloud of thick steam produced by his ninjutsu’s impact on Sakura’s icy trails.

As they both vanished from view, Ino realized she was gaping in awe at the display, and forced her mouth shut. Shikamaru looked smug, however, and immediately spoke up, “She’s was performing that freezing jutsu on the ground all over the area while the other two were busy. The ground is saturated with ice at this point, so the moment either of them used a fire jutsu, which they both favor, visibility was going to drop like a rock. Sasuke’s sharingan might as well be off at this point, and I’ll bet she’s trained to aim by sound. Sasuke lost the moment he let her escape into the forest.”

Choji was frowning as he watched the clouded training ground, and responded, “I think she’d have had a lot more trouble if Naruto hadn’t gone down so quickly. They might have noticed her tactic, and she might have had to deal with being outnumbered. She’s fast, but senbon take very little strength to throw, so I think she would have serious problems at close range.”

Ino was about to voice her opinion when the voice of Team 7’s sensei interceded, “Excellent commentary, kids! You wouldn’t be thinking of sabotaging fellow Konoha ninja in the exams, now would you? No? Great!”

All of Team 10’s genin leapt back, scared witless by Kakashi’s appearance right in the middle of them. Before they could so much as nod, he was already walking out onto the river toward his team, where the steam had finally blown away to reveal Sasuke lying on the ground, his clothes pinned by at least a hundred senbon holding a ninja-wire web over him. He could barely twitch beneath the layer of steel wire, and Sakura was seated next to him, panting while she fanned herself to cool off from the steam.

Ino beat a hasty retreat, followed by Choji and Shikamaru. She glanced back a few minutes later, and said, “When did she get so strong? I thought Sasuke was unbeatable, but she crushed him.”

Shikamaru shrugged as the re-entered the village proper, “Honestly, she’s always been smarter than him. It was just a question of how long it took her to find a good combat instructor and whether she _wanted_ to beat him. I really don’t get what you see in the Uchiha. He’s got talent but no real subtlety.”

Ino’s responding fury was dampened by the knowledge that Sakura had just proven Shikamaru correct, but she still harped on him all the way to the nearest restaurant, Choji laughing at Shikamaru’s groans.

***

Kakashi helped Sakura release Sasuke, and they all undid Naruto’s restraints together. Sasuke was sullen and brooding, while Naruto was staring at Sakura like he no longer recognized her. After a few moments of awkward silence, Naruto finally burst out, “That was amazing, Sakura-chan! You’re so much better than either of us! You moved faster than Sasuke-teme, and your jutsu blew mine out of the water!”

Kakashi interjected before either Sakura or Sasuke could speak, although Sasuke looked mutinous, his fists shaking. Kakashi’s eye was not curved in a smile, but rather serious for once, “That is entirely incorrect, Naruto-kun. Sakura-chan is roughly equal to you two in my estimation. If you and Sasuke-kun had not ignored her after she escaped, it would not have been nearly so easy for her, and either of you could have won.”

He glanced sidelong at Sasuke, who was starting to look more contemplative, and continued, “Honestly, I’m a little disappointed in both of you. I expected you two to keep both of your opponents in mind for this, but you dropped the ball because you had an obvious target right in front of you. Look underneath the underneath. Sakura-chan, you banked on them underselling you as a threat and used that to trap them both. What was your plan if they turned on you?”

Sakura’s timid smile dropped into a grimace, and she answered, “I had nothing unless they decided to follow me into the forest, sensei, and neither of them are dumb enough to do that when its literally iced over.”

Kakashi nodded and looked at the boys. Naruto was frowning, but nodding along, while Sasuke looked less angry, but more shaken by the loss. He waved them off, with the statement, “I put your Chunin Exam signup sheets in the packs you left by the posts. You all pass my test, even if you could have done better. The next week is a rest week. I’ve been pushing you hard for two months, and you are to take this time recover and equip yourselves for the exam. I’ll be around. Ja ne.”

As Kakashi departed, both boys turned to grab their packs, and Sakura barely managed to say goodbye before they were gone. She sighed as she picked up her own gear and began the trek home. The team could work together, but it felt entirely impersonal lately. _Sasuke-kun seemed furious that I won, but what was I supposed to do? We had to give it our all! What, does he really think that little of me?_

***

As Sakura returned to her home and her parents, Sasuke and Naruto were settling into the stools before Ichiraku Ramen. The past months of constant exhaustion had resulted in the two pursuing a less physical rivalry, ranging from jan-ken-pon to eating contests to memory games, at the not-so-subtle suggestion of their sensei. At first, Sasuke was hesitant to engage in such frivolity, but Guy had pointed out the ways simple games exercised ninja skills, as well as the benefits of his rivalry on his motivation to train. Since then, Naruto and Sasuke had taken to competing to see who was buying dinner every week, and this evening, it was Sasuke’s turn to pay, having lost a game of cards the previous night.

Naruto looked vaguely like he had indigestion, which Sasuke had learned translated to confusion over the last six months of team training. He decided that they might as well get it out of the way before Naruto’s mouth was full, and asked, “Alright, what’s bothering you this time, dobe?”

Naruto turned to him and, in a serious tone, said, “I dunno if I want to date Sakura anymore. I always wanted to protect her and prove she could trust me, ya know? Now, though, she’s at least as strong as us, and she doesn’t bother you about a date anymore either…”

As Naruto trailed off, Sasuke frowned, but agreed, “I think she’s taking her training seriously now. It’s an improvement in my opinion, but I don’t think I’ll ever like her and she’s realized it.”

Privately, Sasuke acknowledged that her Hyoton and use of senbon was making him more and more uncomfortable around her. It reminded him a bit too much of struggling to stand under the icy weight of thirty senbon suddenly spearing him, when he had dodged between Haku and Naruto on the bridge. He was not afraid of her, obviously, but he doubted he would ever be able to trust her fully.

Naruto nodded vigorously as their ramen arrived, “Yeah, honestly, I think I’d like a date with you more than her at this point, with how much we hang out!”

Sasuke blushed as Naruto’s brain caught up with his mouth, and he turned bright red to match. Sasuke shot upright from his stool, and stuttered out, “I’d, uh…I’m flattered, but, are you, I mean, uh, that is, I thought you liked girls, though?”

Naruto frowned at him as he answered, “I mean, uh, I mostly like pretty people, and you’re pretty, teme. I like being rivals, though, and I don’t think rivals can date. So, uh, sorry for getting your hopes up, I guess?”

Sasuke, face still tomato red, gaped at his rival and solitary friend for a few moments, cleared his throat and sat back down, turning to his ramen and mumbling, “Yeah, uh, right. Not that I’d want to date anyway, since, um, I’ve got to achieve my ambitions first.”

The rest of the evening was awkward but pleasant for both boys, and they never noticed Kakashi dying of silent laughter on the roof of the ramen stand. When he left and met up with Guy, he said simply “Called it,” and Guy handed over 50 ryo, laughing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This concludes the first of eight story arcs, and is the first fight scene in the story. The next arc will start sometime next week, probably.
> 
> Yes, Sasuke/Naruto is a thing in this fic. No, I will not be spending much time on it after this.
> 
> Kakashi and Guy are absolutely betting on who their in their student's generation are going to date each other. The sensei are absolutely my shippers on deck.


	6. The Chunin Exams, a special mission!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Hokage hands out a series of impossible tasks, and Sakura delves into past research.

The week preceding the Chunin Exams was quiet for Sakura until the day before the exams were to begin, when she found herself called into the Hokage’s office. She entered to find Sasuke and Naruto already waiting, while Kakashi was lounging on the windowsill behind the Hokage, reading his orange erotica. Sasuke was holding a scroll open in his hands with the Hokage’s seal in bright red on it, and Naruto was looking over his shoulder at it. When she entered, Kakashi waved to her without looking up, saying, “Yo, Sakura-chan!”

The Sandaime Hokage looked at her from across his desk, pipe in hand, and addressed her, “Haruno-chan, come in. Uchiha-kun just received his assignment for the coming exams, and I was about to begin covering your team’s role, as well as your individual tasks.”

Naruto waved her over, and Sasuke wordlessly held out the scroll for her to read more easily. It was a list of names, each with a village in black or red written next to each. The Hokage began, indicating the scroll with his pipe, “That is a list of attending genin of interest. As the village’s sole genin with an activated sharingan, you will be performing your clan’s traditional role within the Chunin Exams, that of identifying and cataloguing any new jutsu your fellow competitors employ. Normally, the list would be split between four or five genin, two or more of whom would drop out once they had completed their tasks, but in this case, you will simply have to cover as many as you can, Uchiha Sasuke. This is your mission. Each new jutsu recovered by you during the Exam will be added to your record as a successful C-rank retrieval mission, and should you recover eight or more new jutsu, you will have earned a field promotion to chunin, regardless of your exam performance.”

The Hokage lifted another scroll, holding it out toward Naruto as Sasuke’s grip tightened on his list of targets, a smirk growing on his face. Sakura’s eyebrows rose as Naruto opened his scroll, which was the profile of another genin, named Sabaku no Gaara, who looked to be sporting the heaviest eyeliner Sakura had ever seen. The Hokage’s face broke into a smile as Naruto glanced up at him in confusion, “Naruto-kun, your mission is simple. Publicly humiliate that genin during the Exam. You are free to use every jutsu, ally, and trick at your disposal, short of killing him. He is extremely dangerous for a genin, and the primary challenger in the coming Exams. The worse you make him look, the more likely you are to be promoted.”

Naruto laughed out loud, dancing on the spot at the prospect of an order to prank someone. Sakura and Sasuke both looked at the Hokage askance, and Kakashi was giggling in the background. _He’s ordering Naruto to prank somebody!? That’s the meanest thing I’ve ever heard! It’s all Naruto spends his free time on!_

As Naruto’s glee petered out, Sakura was handed her own scroll from the Hokage, and told seriously, “Your assignment is the most difficult and long-term, Haruno Sakura. Should you succeed, however, you will immediately be given both specialized training and your choice of long-term assignments, as well as an A-rank R&D mission on your record.”

Opening her scroll, Sakura found a technical document, with Naruto’s face on it. The scroll was almost twice as thick as either of the boys’, and it seemed to be describing _…Naruto’s Sexy-no-Jutsu!?_ Her face went beet-red, but before she could shriek in anger, the Hokage held up a hand and pre-empted her, “You have shown an aptitude for…jutsu creation and modification, according to Kakashi. Naruto’s…signature technique is the first recorded instance of a low cost, physical shapeshifting jutsu, as opposed to illusory shapeshifting jutsu. Your job, Haruno-chan, is to deconstruct it and try to develop variations on it.”

Naruto frowned, squinting at her scroll, then spoke up, “This again, jiji? You’ve already made me sit around in R&D for, like, months now! They couldn’t do anything, dattebayo!”

Before Sakura could say anything, she noticed a small henohenomoheji in Kakashi’s handwriting tucked into the margin of the scroll, and abruptly snapped her mouth shut, and bowed to the Hokage, her mind racing. _Kakashi-sensei told me that he would write that on any paperwork to do with kekkei genkai theft. Does that mean that this is actually Naruto’s bloodline? Naruto’s kekkei genkai is the ability to turn into a hot girl!? I have no idea how to do that! Wait, if my mission is basically impossible right now, does that mean that the other two missions are just as hard? Only Sasuke-kun was given a guarantee of promotion on success, too…_

Kakashi broke into her thoughts, cutting across Naruto’s complaints to the Hokage with an unusually serious tone of voice, “These individual missions, however, are only part of the whole. The Chunin Exams are an opportunity to draw in fresh clients for the village and intimidate our rivals, and I expect you three to act as one to protect your teammates and help accomplish each other’s missions. This is your first true taste of how an upper ranked ninja operates, with both individual and team objectives to balance, wherein each of you has a separate leadership role within the team with regards to your own mission. Sasuke-kun, you will be the mission lead for the combat portions of the exam, and you, Naruto-kun, will be the mission lead wherever Sabaku no Gaara is involved. Sakura-chan, you will be in charge at all other times, taking the role of strategic team leader. These responsibilities will undoubtedly shift mid-mission, and your job as a team is to adapt.”

The Hokage released a puff of smoke as he followed Kakashi’s speech, “Team 7 is dismissed. Make Konohagakure proud in the Exams tomorrow.”

***

After a quick discussion of when and where to meet for the exam, Sakura spent the next day researching and reading over the scroll she had received, and quickly realized that Naruto absolutely had a kekkei genkai of some sort, and that it had already been identified as a mutation of the traditional bloodline of the Uzumaki clan of old.

_I wonder if that’s why he’s been given the Uzumaki name, as opposed to one of the other extinct names they hand out to orphans. He might be a real Uzumaki offshoot, unlike the twenty or so other ‘Uzumaki’ orphans I’ve met around the village. It’d be a way to hide a surviving Uzumaki in plain sight, I suppose, given the purges they were subjected to in the last war._

Reading further into the traditional kekkei genkai of the Uzumaki had been surprisingly easy, since Kakashi had apparently arranged for her to have a higher clearance level specifically for kekkei genkai materials. The village had retained around twenty manuals and studies about the Uzumaki of Uzushiogakure. According to the documentation she managed to burn through in a day, Naruto was almost certainly related to them. Although she could not find any genealogical documentation to show how he was related to them.

The main line of the Uzumaki clan was defined by their high-density chakra, which was thought to be the result of a unique chemical which took the place of insulin within their bodies. The common side effects of their hyper dense chakra included a lot of traits that Naruto shared. Hyperactivity, extreme stamina, greater appetite, slower ageing, and lack of chakra control all stood out to Sakura on her first pass. On the other hand, she noted that Naruto lacked a number of key identifying traits, such as the red hair, water-natured chakra, and relatively slow chakra recovery rates. The likelihood of Naruto being the descendant of a mainline Uzumaki just kept climbing in Sakura’s estimation. _Maybe he’s a Yamanaka crossbreed? It would explain the blond hair and blue eyes, at least, although I don’t know how his physical transformation ability would result from that._

According to further documentation, the chakra technique for inducting a new Uzumaki was extremely costly and dangerous, calling for something like forty gallons of human blood of a compatible blood and chakra type with the inductee. It also sported a terrifying eighty-three percent casualty rate from testing done approximately four decades ago. Sakura felt rather relieved that Hyoton had not involved literally swimming in blood in retrospect, while feeling a little incredulous that that was the best method available. _I assume that it has to do with the residual chakra in the blood, and bathing in it somehow alters living chakra, because otherwise, why would the chakra type of the donors matter? Perhaps the blood is not even really necessary, I mean, most of the information here is from the Warring States Era, with only a little research around forty and twenty years ago, by Uzumaki Mito and an Orochimaru, respectively. No idea who Orochimaru was, but he seemed to write it off as a waste of time and resources, and Mito-sama seemed to lack the theoretical chakra knowledge to improve the technique. Maybe for Naruto’s kekkei genkai, I can adapt some of the more modern medical transfusion techniques to copy it?_

Naruto’s Sexy-no-Jutsu, however, was the most mysterious part, as it seemed to be the result of the same hand signs for a normal henge, but with Yang chakra instead of Yin chakra, which should require both more energy than it does, and an upkeep. Naruto’s jutsu required neither, and the research thus far seemed to suggest that, once his chakra control becomes less abysmal, he could shapeshift without any jutsu involved.

By the time Sakura had started to see any progress, she needed to go to sleep to be rested for the exam. She dreamt that night of a lake of blood and red haired oni crawling out of it. Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke met the next day equipped for war, an hour before the exam was to begin. Their gear had not substantially changed from Kakashi’s ‘exam,’ although Sasuke and Naruto had both brought an extra pouch of supplies, writing materials in Sasuke’s case and nebulous “pranking supplies” on Naruto’s part. There was already a small crowd of genin around the academy as they approached.


	7. Cheating?  What's that?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sakura's observations during the first phase of the Chunin Exams, and Naruto's first assassination attempts on Gaara's dignity.

Team 7 entered the academy building, where the Chunin Exam was taking place, without major issue about half an hour ahead of time, as Sasuke immediately caught the genjutsu distracting from the real entrance and alerted the other two. They slipped past the crowd and up the stairs without drawing any serious attention. On the correct floor, however, Naruto pulled them aside into an empty classroom, where he created five clones, each of whom began to pull out paint and smoke bombs. As his clones left one by one, he turned to Sasuke and Sakura, saying, “Alright, this Gaara guy should be getting here soon. Sasuke-teme, I need you to be my lookout out of this room’s window, since the foreign genin housing is in that direction. Sakura, when the teme sees him, can you run ahead to the exam room without anyone seeing you and freeze the main door shut? I need people to form a crowd in front of the door by the time he gets here. This is gonna be great!”

Sasuke wordlessly turned to the window, his sharingan active, and Sakura nodded, assuming a sprinting position by the door, but on the ceiling. Naruto, meanwhile, ran out of the room, down the hall. The wait lasted about fifteen minutes, during which time, they heard a dozen or so people pass by the room outside. When Sasuke gestured to her with the signal for “Go,” Sakura rocketed down the hallway on the ceiling, silent and blindingly fast. She arrived at the exam room in three seconds, then formed the hand-signs for the frozen ground jutsu as she crouched above the door, watching the wall slowly develop a growing layer of ice. As her jutsu worked, she pulled aside a ceiling tile and hid in the crawlspace between the floors, carefully maintaining her jutsu from concealment as she slid the tile back into place. Over the course of the next five minutes, the ice gained almost two inches of thickness, as they approached the time for the exam to begin. Suddenly, Sasuke pushed up the ceiling tile and gestured for her to move, and he was followed by Naruto, who pointed to the tiles above the exam room. The team silently made their way into the exam room via the ceiling, dropping down the moment Sasuke indicated that nobody was watching below, from his view through a cracked tile. Within the room, they settled against one wall in the relatively empty exam room and were immediately greeted by Kakashi appearing in the middle of them. His visible eye curved up at them as he said, “Maa, with that ice wall outside, there’s going to be a fight to get in. I can’t wait to see how many won’t get in in time! It does my heart good to see you working together so well, and undercutting the competition, no less!”

Team 7, by now thoroughly used to Kakashi appearing without warning, barely startled at his sudden appearance and subsequent disappearance. Kakashi vanished as there was a loud commotion outside and couple of thumps on the door. The other teams in the room looked at the door apprehensively, and one approached, but jolted back as a loud crunch echoed from the hallway, followed by yet more shouting. Moments later, there was a cracking sound and the doors exploded into the room, followed by a ninja wearing an eye-searingly revealing green leotard and sporting a bowl cut. Sasuke twitched beside them, reflexively stepping behind Naruto. As the various genin in the hall crowded and pushed to enter, a series of explosions announced Naruto’s work, as smoke billowed into the room from the hall. The intensity of the yelling at least doubled as a few screams joined in, followed by a mad dash of genin out of the clouds of smoke, several with black eyes or bloody noses from the fight to enter. Naruto started suddenly giggling madly and whispered, “Mission success! I’m gonna be a chunin for sure with this, dattebayo!”

Before the smoke had fully cleared, the team from Sunagakure entered, with Gaara covered in paint and sporting a fluffy raccoon tail tacked onto the base of his gourd. Naruto’s clones managed to do a fair likeness of raccoon markings all over his face and clothes. Almost immediately upon achieving full visibility, both of his teammates frantically leapt away from him, taking cover behind a nearby bench. Gaara glanced at them, clearly confused, then saw the paint, and turned, eye twitching ever so slightly, to see the tail, just as a most of the room started laughing at him. Suddenly, there was a swirl of sand and the paint tail were gone, and Naruto swore beneath his breath as he saw that his work had been completely undone in moments.

Before anything else could happen, the door was filled by means of a sudden earth jutsu, leaving a crowd of shouting genin trapped in the hallway, and a huge man appeared via shunshin at the front of the room. He slammed his hand on the desk and ordered them to their seats, as indicated by a set of chunin staff who had appeared at the sides of the room. The rules of the exam were simple, a paper test with ten questions, the last of which would be revealed near the end of the time. The rules demanded that they not get caught cheating three times, and that they either passed or failed as a team. Sakura filled out the first nine questions of the exam in a matter of minutes and, upon flipping her test over, noticed that almost everyone in the room was cheating somehow. One of her simpler Hyoton exercises called for her to create a small mirrored surface with ice, and she used it here to create an ice hand mirror which she used to covertly watch the rest of the room cheat their little hearts out. Just in time, she saw Ino forming the Shintenshin jutsu, focused directly on Sakura. Immediately, Sakura dropped her pen, and used it as an excuse to bend down, out of Ino’s sight, just as she slumped forward. The genin in front of her froze up for a moment and swore softly, and Sakura sighed in relief as she confirmed that Ino had missed.

_Phew! Close call, there. Although, really, I doubt Ino-pig would go so far as to sabotage my test after she had the answers._

She spent the next half hour watching other genin cheat, or at least try to cheat. It became increasingly funny as genin failed for being caught in various ways, and she noticed a clear and pertinent bias in that for every Konoha genin ejected, two out of village genin were thrown out. She noticed that Sasuke had flipped his exam over and was taking notes, probably on the various espionage jutsu in use around the room. Naruto, meanwhile, seemed to be sweating under the pressure, but she was certain that Naruto had to have copied at least the minimum number of answers by this point, if only because Hinata seemed to be blatantly leaving her sheet available to him.

Directly beside her, she watched in fascination as Shino, who had, for all intents and purposes, been mostly motionless so far, shuddered. She barely spotted the kikaichu making their way onto his legs from the floor and wondered how he was getting the answers from them while pondering whether Aburame clan techniques counted as kekkei genkai. They clearly involved some amount of body modification to accommodate the insects, so perhaps Shino had to undergo surgery or experience a similar chakra technique to the one Kakashi performed for her. Her daydreaming was abruptly interrupted by a call for attention from the front of the room.

Morino Ibiki, the scarred giant who was acting as the head proctor, announced that failing the tenth question would result in being barred from advancement to chunin in the future, and invited the examinees to leave. None of team 7’s members panicked, although Naruto appeared to be distracted by something. Slowly but steadily, the room lost approximately a third of the remaining participants, before Ibiki nodded decisively and revealed the trick of the tenth question as well as the purpose of this portion of the exam. When the window exploded in and Mitarashi Anko burst in, announcing the next section of testing, there was a _fwump_ and the hair on Gaara’s head was suddenly blackened in a cloud of sparks and smoke as a small paper bomb went off, but it appeared almost as if his hair hadn’t been touched. In the moment of silence while everyone stared blankly at Gaara for a moment, Anko coughed and continued, announcing the excursion to training ground forty-four, the Forest of Death.


	8. Forest of...Traitors?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Sakura experiences a curb stomp.
> 
> Orochimaru is his own warning.

After a short walk, the remaining genin stood in a crowd before the gates of the Forest of Death. The trees themselves were much larger than anything in the area around Konoha, but the truly worrying part of the forest was the sound echoing out of it. Sakura could identify most of the dangerous beasts they had been taught to watch out for in the Academy by the animal cries alone. She shivered at the thought of running into a wild chakra-enhanced tiger or a swarm of flying leeches. Anko spent almost ten full minutes being vaguely creepy and threatening with her description of the exam, although Sakura was mostly distracted by trying to work out which directions they should avoid, based on the noises coming from the jungle ahead of them. Kakashi had drilled her on using sound to determine direction and distance while fighting blind, given how dependent her fighting style was on senbon. Naruto, meanwhile, was stewing in anger at his pranks failing to leave any lasting impression on Gaara, while Sasuke was the only one seriously paying attention to Anko, albeit with increasing impatience.

When, at last, they were given their scroll, marked with Heaven, they moved to their assigned entry point, and quickly huddled up to rough out a plan. Sakura began, “We should head straight for the tower, then try to trap an incoming team. It will be easier, and it should provide the maximum number of opportunities to ambush an already weakened team. Between the three of us, I think we should be able to rob a team of their scrolls without them realizing, even if they are too dangerous to beat outright. Naruto-san and I can set up traps, and you can take the lead in combat, Sasuke-san.”

Naruto was nodding along halfway through, but Sasuke shook his head, “I want to try to catch other teams fighting and pick off the survivors for as long as possible. We’re well-trained for surviving in this terrain, unlike the foreign genin, who are about half of the teams. We would be safer on the move than sitting still, and this is a chance to try to learn about our competition. Besides, I need to collect their jutsu, and this is a perfect chance.”

Sasuke and Sakura both frowned at each other, and they turned to Naruto, both about to demand he side with them, when their gate’s proctor signaled for them to enter. As they enter the forest, Naruto speaks up, “Sasuke-teme’s right. We can put traps around the tower on the last day if we haven’t got the other scroll by then, but I bet we won’t need to, dattebayo!”

Outvoted, Sakura shrugged, and they settled into a familiar search pattern from Kakashi’s occasional lessons on tracking. They moved as quietly as possible, up near the canopy of the forest, and were leery of the various terrifying fauna filling the trees. They found another team after about half a day of searching, and followed the genin, who appeared to be Amegakure natives, for about an hour before the other team settled in to camp for the night, and Naruto pulled them back, whispering, “Why not steal their scroll while their watch is down? Sasuke-teme is pretty good at stealth, and I think I saw the blind one stick it into his jumpsuit earlier. We can keep tailing them after that if you still want their jutsu.”

Sakura nodded, and Sasuke shrugged, grunting. A couple of hours later, Sasuke, just one shadow among many in the night bound forest, darted in and out of their camp on silent feet, returning with a scroll marked with Earth despite the genin the other team had on watch. Team 7 departed to a distance, and set up camp for the night themselves, agreeing to hide the scrolls in the safest place possible: buried beneath Sasuke’s bedroll. As they finished hiding the scroll and divvying up rations between them, there was a scream from the forest to the North, where the Ame genin were waiting, followed by a series of rumbles and shouting. Naruto sent a clone to see what was happening, with Sasuke close behind.

The moment Sasuke was out of sight, a veritable explosion of smoke heralded the arrival of a snake wider around than any of them were tall, barreling through the trees towards Sakura and Naruto, mouth wide. Naruto immediately shoved Sakura aside, shouting, “Get Sasuke, it’s a trap!”

Before he could be swallowed, Naruto breathed a fire jutsu into the snake’s maw, causing it to rear back in pain. Sakura sped away on a growing trail of ice, trusting Naruto to hold it off until she could get Sasuke. She burst through the trees to a scene of carnage, the pieces of the Ame genin painting their camp and the surrounding trees, with a tall Kusa ninja standing amid them, kunai locked with Sasuke.

With silent precision, Sakura unleashed four barrages of frosted senbon at the enemy ninja in the space of a single breath, charging around the tree line of the gore-splattered clearing to get a clear shot on the woman’s back. In the time it took for the senbon to reach the fight, there was a flurry of taijutsu, in which Sasuke landed several glancing hits on his opponent, and she disarmed him of his kunai. Most of the senbon were knocked aside in the blur of limbs and steel, but eight lodged themselves in the Kusa genin’s arms, and she leapt aside, directly into a face-full of Sasuke’s fireball jutsu, causing her to rocket away and through a tree trunk, covered in fire. In the beat of silence following the exchange, Sakura allowed herself a calming breath, but before they could move, a disturbing chuckling echoed from the enemy, which made Sakura realize she hadn’t heard a single sound out of the woman up to that moment, despite the senbon and the burns. Ahead of them, through a shimmering heat haze, the woman stepped out of the bloody, burning tree, but her face appeared to be melting off, along with bits of skin on her hands. With a sickening tearing sound, the Kusa ninja ripped her own face off, revealing a pale man beneath, with mirthful golden eyes.

“What a delight you are, _Sasuke~chan_! Lovely musculature, and quite a delightfully _mature_ set of sharingan.” The man’s voice was dry as a desert and deeply unsettling, setting the fine hairs on Sakura’s neck on end as he continued, “Now that we’ve been introduced, perhaps you would be interested in learning something more complex than _simple_ taijutsu? Punching and kicking is all well and good, but I am Orochimaru, and I can teach you everything you need to handle _Itachi~chan_. Why, I invented several of his techniques!”

Sasuke tensed before charging directly at Orochimaru, spitting with fury at him, only to be summarily ignored, as every single blow missed or was turned aside, in an insulting parody of Sasuke’s own taijutsu style. Sakura, snapped out of her horror at the sight of Orochimaru’s molten flesh mask and sped out to the side once more, launching at least fifty needles, which Orochimaru moved around like water, laughing and unharmed. Where the needles missed and impacted in the surrounding foliage, they left patches of frozen ground and shattered wood. Without any warning, Orochimaru slithered, swift and deadly, across the clearing, directly between her legs, grabbed her left leg and pulled as he pulled himself up beside her. A sickening crack heralded her knee giving way beneath her as Sasuke roared and launched himself directly over her with a fire jutsu exploding from his lips. In that instant as Orochimaru slid to the side, Sakura saw her chance and threw a full barrage of eight Hyoton coated senbon directly into Orochimaru’s chest as she fell on her good knee.

In an instant, everything stopped, and Orochimaru stared at her in what looked like shock, before the world blurred and shifted, and Sakura found Orochimaru’s features melting into Sasuke’s horrified face as he toppled backwards, a patch of frost coating his torso. Beside her, where Sasuke had stood over her, Orochimaru was now leaning down over her.

_Oh Kami!_

The serpentine man’s grin out of the corner of her eye opened up the bottom of her stomach, but she could not pull her eyes away from Sasuke’s collapsed form as Orochimaru whispered almost lovingly into her ear, “You really are _adorable_ , dear, a veritable scoop of peach sorbet that I would _love_ to get a taste of, but I’m afraid I don’t have time to dally with Konoha’s attempt at replacing _me_. Do pass on my compliments to your failure of a sensei, _Sakura~chan_!”

He vanished in the same manner that Kakashi favored, and moments later, Naruto’s unconscious form toppled out of the branches above them, bruised and beaten. By the time Sakura’s mind had caught up with what had just happened, she was already dragging herself to Sasuke, and rushing with shaking hands to pull out the ice-infused senbon from his chest before the cold penetrated to his organs. She saw that he had apparently been bitten in the shoulder and was far more roughed up than he had appeared to be during the fight. Once she was vaguely certain that he would not die from her senbon, she turned to the side and vomited all over the forest floor, coughing and crying at the pain and terror burning through her veins.

Eventually mastering her shaking body again, she forced herself up, despite her distinctly fractured kneecap, and hobbled to Naruto, who appeared to be coated in slime and purple with bruising. His stomach also bore a strange seal, and he was unresponsive to her attempts to wake him. Realizing that she was crippled and alone, responsible for both of her helpless teammates in the middle of what was effectively enemy territory, she fell back against a tree and sobbed.

_Get up! They’re not dead yet, and I refuse to let them die! Shannaro!_

Over the next few hours, she dragged both boys back to their campsite, and collected as much useable gear from the now thoroughly murdered Amegakure team as she could. She gathered an enormous stockpile of senbon from them, as well as a fair amount of trapping supplies. Every step hurt, and she settled down only after laying out as many alarm traps as she could to guard her team through the night. Sasuke had developed a fever as she had cleaned and bandaged his chest, and Naruto was still unresponsive, but at least they were both breathing. Come morning, she planned to get them out of the forest, exam be damned.

_Cha! I didn’t sign up for this! Orochimaru is the most powerful nuke-nin Konoha has ever lost! I need to get them to a real doctor; I don’t know what to do…_

As the moon fell out of sight above the canopy, two of her alarm traps triggered, and she had time to turn and hurl senbon into the bushes as a team of Otogakure ninja burst from the trees, catching two of them in the arms, and eliciting a scream from the girl, although the frozen needles ricocheted off something metal under the other’s long sleeves. As the female Oto genin stumbled, Sakura followed with a precision shot directly into her left eye, causing her scream to end, abruptly. All Sakura could feel in that moment was cold panic as she reached for more of her senbon.

The other two swore and charged her, only for one of the long-sleeved one to freeze in place, before an enormously inflated Choji crushed him from above. The other one was forced to dodge away as Sakura threw another barrage at his center of mass and was intercepted by a green and orange blur impacting against his back with a sickening _crunch_. The blur resolved itself moments later as the strange Konoha genin that had broken open the doors in the first phase of the exam. At the same time, Ino and Shikamaru dropped down from above beside Choji, and helped him away from the thoroughly flattened corpse of his target. Choji turned aside from the trio of dead genin, looking green, as Shikamaru rubbed his back. Ino, however, charged at Sakura, grabbing her, and shaking her as she exclaimed, “Sakura! Are you alright? Is Sasuke alright?”

At the sight of friendly faces, Sakura’s vision blurred, and she disconnectedly realized that tears were filling her vision as she collapsed onto Ino, choking out, “Kami, Ino, they won’t wake up, and I can barely walk! We almost got killed by O-Orochimaru!”

Shikamaru’s head snapped up at that, and Ino looked horrified. Sakura, meanwhile, took that opportunity to faint away entirely, exhausted but finally safe.

***

Sasuke, when he awoke to see Sakura succumb to her exhaustion, was very, very done with this exam. First, that snaky _asshole_ attacked them, and caught Sakura in a genjutsu mid-monologue, freezing her in place while he beat the shit out of Sasuke, _bit_ him, and proceeded to no-sell Naruto’s attempted sneak attack. Then, when Sasuke tried to dodge away to release Sakura, Orochimaru broke her knee and the genjutsu made her _fill him with icy-goddamn-senbon_. Again. Now, it might not have been entirely Sakura’s fault, but her tendency to throw senbon and ask questions never was starting to legitimately terrify him. So, it was safe to say that he really, really wanted this to be over already.

He groaned, pulled himself up, feeling surprisingly energized, rolled his throbbing shoulder, and grunted at Lee, “If you help us to the tower, we need a medic. I can carry Sakura for now, but I’ll need help with the dobe.”

As if summoned by his nickname, Naruto murmured beside him, “Five more minutes, teme…”

Neji landed beside Lee, walked up to Sasuke, and shook his head, “I appreciate that you might need help, Uchiha, but this is still a test. We can help you most of the way there, but these Oto genin lacked the correct scroll.” Side-eyeing Shikamaru and company, he continued, “It would be best if we split up as soon as possible. Travelling as a group will attract a lot of attention, which might not be manageable with injured.”

Sasuke sighed, and rubbed his aching chest, before he nodded, “Actually, we should be fine. Naruto and I can manage to the tower, as long as he’s mobile.”

Ino interjected from where she was checking over Sakura’s knee before Sasuke could start dragging Naruto up, stating in a surprisingly business-like manner, “We can stand watch for you long enough to splint Forehead’s leg and you two to recover. These guys had the scroll we needed, so it’s not like we need to rush anymore. We can go with you to the tower together once she’s awake.”

Shikamaru shrugged and spoke over Sasuke before he could argue, “We’re all Konoha ninja, Uchiha-san. It only makes sense to help each other out.”

Eventually, they all settled down to rest until dawn, and Sasuke did his best not to show his discomfort around his pink-haired teammate while they wrapped a splint around her leg.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love writing Orochimaru. He's such a creep.
> 
> Sorry it took so long to get this up, but my household was playing host to a delightful stomach bug for the last week.


	9. Is it really a fight if it takes less than thirty seconds?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wherein our heroine gets to see how her generation of ninja are shaping up.

Sakura was awoken the following morning by Ino touching her shoulder. Her immediate thoughts consisted of the pain of her broken knee and the terror of Orochimaru, and she found herself flipping on top of Ino with a senbon pressing against her rival’s jugular, her knee throbbing at the sudden motion. Ino blinked up at her, and Sakura took a moment to realize whose throat she was menacing, before pushing backward, and pulling away the senbon, stuttering, “I-Ino, I’m s-sorry! I just, I-I-”

Ino cut her off, waving her hand, “It’s fine, Forehead. I should’ve known better than to touch you from that nearby. We covered waking up injured ninja in the Academy. It’s not your fault.”

Sakura took a few moments to catch her breath, and then let Ino help her up on wobbly legs, looking around their makeshift campsite. Naruto and Sasuke, both sporting bandages, were in the process of packing up their supplies again, and Naruto cheered at Sakura, “You’re awake! Ino had to splint your leg, so we’ll carry you to the tower. We’re gonna go straight there, now, then we’ll be done!”

Sasuke, meanwhile, continued to pack his supplies, and did not so much as glance her way as he stood and said, “We need to move. Nara, is your team ready?”

Shikamaru slouched out of the tree line with Choji at his back, and he answered, “Yeah. Let’s move. Choji volunteered to carry you, Haruno-san.”

The next five hours were uncomfortable and harried, as the six genin sprinted for the center of the training ground. Once they were close, the group slowed down, and very carefully moved forward, scouting for traps as they approached the tower. All told, they found almost forty different traps, and the remains of two different genin teams before they reached the building, barely bypassing a team of Kusagakure genin waiting in ambush.

Within the bottom floor of the tower, the riddle written on the wall was straightforward, and both teams opened their scrolls, summoning a pair of chunin proctors, one of whom was Iruka sensei. Before either of them could get a word in, Shikamaru cut across them, with a rare show of brusqueness, “We need to report nuke-nin interference in the exam, an encounter with Orochimaru, and a lot of injuries. The exam can wait.”

What followed was a series of debriefs with the chunin, Kakashi, and finally the Hokage, who commended them for their bravery, and hummed noncommittally past his pipe at Naruto’s questions. Kakashi, on the other hand, led them to a room in the tower, and stared them down before pronouncing, “Maa, forget your individual missions for the next couple of days. Rest and recover. You’re safe here until this phase of the exam is over, and you can get some proper medical attention. Wouldn’t want you to break your bodies any more than you already have, right?”

The next few days were spent recovering, and Sakura found herself far more grateful for Naruto than she had ever been before, as he was always happy to help her walk with her splinted leg. The three of them were in a sorry state. Sasuke and Naruto were both incapable of using ninjutsu for the moment, as both had a seal of Orochimaru’s design on their bodies, according to Kakashi. In addition to Sakura’s wrecked knee, her chakra was behaving irregularly thanks to the aftereffects of Orochimaru’s genjutsu, although she was back up to performing her Hyoton ninjutsu by the time the genin in the tower were all called together.

The room where the remaining fifteen genin gathered featured a large pair of stone arms folded into the Ram Seal below a large screen, and they were greeted by the sensei and proctors, with the Hokage in front of them all. He explained the concept of the exams as a war by proxy, and the simple fact that too many teams made it to the final round. As he wrapped up, one of the exam proctors stepped forward and asked that anyone who felt unable to compete in the elimination round of combat forfeit now, with the understanding that it will not be held against their consideration for promotion, or their other teammates.

Looking around, Sakura noticed that basically every genin was injured, aside from the three Sunagakure ninja, and splints like the one on her leg were by no means unique.

_Half of them look worse off than me. I can take ‘em! Shannaro!_

From the crowd, a grey-haired genin announced that he had too little chakra left to continue and was followed by two of the Kusagakure genin for similar reasons, although their remaining team member decided to stay in regardless. Following their departure, the first match was announced on the screen, between Shino and Kankurō. All but one of the proctors and the two combatants left the arena for the raised viewing balconies on the sides of the room.

Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto all huddled around Kakashi, who had his little orange book out as usual. As, the fight began with a flurry of thrown weapons on Kankurō’s part and a swarm of kikaichu on Shino’s part, Kakashi addressed them, “Neither of you boys should actively use chakra, Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun. If you do, I will end the match, Sasuke-kun, and if you do, Naruto you will lose because you will probably set yourself on fire with how badly that seal is interfering with your chakra control. Sakura-chan, try to stay off your injured leg in the fight. Just remember, surrender is preferable to death, this time!”

The proctor announced suddenly that, as both genin had retreated from the arena, the match was a forfeit for both. Below, Kankurō’s skin had fallen away to reveal a puppet, and Shino was partially dissolved into a pile of insects. Both grumbled in annoyance from where they had retreated to hide on the balconies.

The next match was between Gaara and Tenten, and the fight was incredibly one-sided, as none of Tenten’s admittedly impressive arsenal could penetrate the literal armor that coated Gaara, and she surrendered after an enormous mace was thrown back so hard that it cratered the wall beside her, well before Gaara could advance to attack her directly with his sand. Sakura found herself analyzing Gaara’s sand control, which she tentatively identified as a kekkei genkai related to Sunagakure’s Magnet Release, famously used by the second Kazekage. Given his lack of hand signs and how freely he could maneuver it, she thought that he had to inculcate the sand with his chakra beforehand, hence the gourd of sand on his back. If that were the case, an enemy could theoretically ruin the sand with any sufficiently chakra heavy ninjutsu, either slowing its movement, or making it completely useless for Gaara. A similar technique was used with fire and lightning ninjutsu to disrupt Magnet Release techniques in the previous wars, after all.

Sasuke and Lee were called down next, and what followed began on even footing. Lee shouted out as they charged each other, “In our previous spars, we have held back to avoid injury! Today I will show you the true power of Guy-sensei’s Taijutsu!”

Sasuke broke into a vicious grin at that announcement, although he did not answer verbally. Both shed weights as they fought, until their limbs were a blur of intense motion, broken at last when Sasuke managed land a kick under Lee’s jaw, launching him at the stone hands at the end of the room. There, Lee roared, “Your youth is shining like the morning sun, but I have just begun! Behold, as I release the first two Gates!”

Suddenly, chakra began flowing from Lee in visible waves, and in the space of an instant, he flew at Sasuke with the force of a cannonball, and in the time it took for Sasuke to dodge, Lee, turned, spinning mid-air, and landed a kick to the back of Sasuke’s head. As Lee landed and his chakra returned to normal, Sasuke lay collapsed on the ground, unconscious, and the proctor announced Lee’s victory.

Kiba and Neji were called down for the next match, but, rather than watch, both Sakura and Naruto followed Kakashi as he led them to a temporary infirmary in a side room, where Sasuke was being tended to by a medic. The medic looked up as they entered, and said, “He’ll be fine. Just a minor concussion, but that’s easily solved with standard medical ninjutsu, but it’ll take a few minutes for him to wake up.”

Kakashi nodded, then turned to his other two genin, lacking his usual crinkled eye smile, “Alright. While he’s out, I might as well get this out of the way. The seal on Sasuke is infinitely worse than the one Orochimaru put on you, Naruto. A seal master is going to take care of yours sometime in the next week, depending on when he arrives in Konoha, but Sasuke’s is permanent as far as we know. I need both of you to keep an eye on him going forward, since the seal _will_ mess with his head, even with the precautions we’ll be putting in place once he’s awake. Report it to me if he acts in a suspicious manner, and if I’m not available, go to the Hokage. Got it?”

As both genin nodded, a little stunned by how serious Kakashi was, for once, Kiba was brought in, bruised, unconscious, and with a whimpering Akamaru on his chest. The proctor hauling in the Inuzuka pair looked around, and gestured at them, “Uzumaki is up next, so you should head back.”

Kakashi gestured for them to go, and Sakura returned to the balcony, looking down at one of the older Konoha genin waiting for Naruto. The man had a pair of black lenses hiding his eyes and veil hiding most of his face. Immediately after the match started, Naruto charged him, and the genin, apparently named Yoroi, slid to the side and grappled with Naruto, his hands glowing with chakra. While they grappled, the technique achieved nothing, and once he managed to pin Naruto, he grunted, “Why aren’t you already unconscious, kid? I’ve been draining your chakra this whole time!”

Naruto growled at him and shouted that he couldn’t even feel it, and Yoroi kept his hold until, after about a minute of holding Naruto down, he started to sweat, then suddenly screamed and toppled over, the exposed skin on his fingers visible red and enflamed. Naruto got up, looking confused and bit wobbly, and the proctor called the match when it became clear that Yoroi could not get up. With a shrug, Naruto made his way back up, and Sakura asked him, “What did you do, Naruto?”

Naruto flopped on the ground and shrugged as Ino and Hinata were both called down to the arena, “I dunno? I mean, I’m feeling kinda low on chakra now, but I didn’t even get to do anything, ya know?”

Sakura shook her head and turned back to watch the match, her mind trying to work out what went wrong, and concluded that either Yoroi didn’t have enough room in his chakra coils for all of Naruto’s chakra, or his chakra was too different to safely hold in someone else’s coils. _Either way, more evidence that he’s a real Uzumaki with regards to the high-density chakra._ Below, Ino tried to trap Hinata so that she could use her clan jutsu, and Hinata proceeded to thoroughly humiliate her opponent in a taijutsu match. Without Shikamaru or Choji to keep her opponent out of melee range, Ino was forced to rely on her own taijutsu and kunai to try and fend off Hinata, and that was a losing proposition against a Hyuuga. Within a few minutes, Ino’s chakra was locked behind blocked tenketsu, and Hinata was bowing to the helpless Yamanaka and helping her hobble out of the Arena.

_Ino hasn’t really changed much from the Academy. I wonder if Team 7 is just that far ahead, or if she’s just fallen behind? I mean, none of us have really had time to be social for the last half a year, so I don’t really know what’s been going on with the others. I need to thank her for helping in the forest anyway, so maybe I should stop by the flower shop sometime._

Sakura was called down next, and her opponent was another of the older Konoha genin, named Misumi, who shared his teammate’s choice of a veil over most of his face. _If he can drain chakra like the other one, then I can’t let him get in close!_ The moment the match began, the man charged at her, and Sakura did exactly what she had trained to do for the last few months with Kakashi: she threw senbon. Specifically, she threw as many as she could before he reached her, roughly one hundred and fifty in total, each of which was coated in a little bit of Hyoton chakra. Misumi tried to spin and twist out of the way, which got him clear of about half of them before he caught one in the leg, toppled, and abruptly turned into a pincushion. Sakura counted sixty hits, mostly to joints and major muscle groups, and his skin was visibly frosting over from the sheer volume of ice-natured chakra in his system. When Misumi could not get up, the proctor called the match, and Sakura came forward to help the medic remove the Hyoton chakra and needles from his body. After a couple of minutes, Misumi was awake, mobile, and, although he was frostbitten, he was grateful that Sakura kept him from freezing to death. He thanked her through chattering teeth in the infirmary, “Y-You’re pretty incredible with s-s-senbon. That-t’s usually an Anbu sk-kill! Who t-taught you?”

Sakura smiled ruefully and answered, “Kakashi-sensei was pretty insistent that I learn properly, so I’ve been doing constant throwing drills for months.”

In her head, she was reeling. _Senbon are mostly Anbu weapons? Kakashi-sensei and Yamato-sensei both acted like it was standard training, though! Are they_ both _Anbu then? Does that mean our team is being trained to the standards of black ops agents?_

By the time she came back out of the infirmary, the match between Temari and Choji was over, with Choji headed to the infirmary, and Shikamaru’s match with remaining Kusagakure genin was under way. It was over quickly, as Shikamaru forced the genin to hold still with his shadow and take a thrown kunai to each hand. Shikamaru walked away without a scratch on him as his opponent was taken to the medical staff.

With all the matches complete, the Hokage announced that they would compete in a tournament in a month’s time, and the first round’s matchups were displayed on the screen on the wall. The first match was between Lee and Sakura, followed by Neji and Hinata, Naruto and Temari, and finally Shikamaru and Gaara. Sakura looked speculatively at Lee while in the background Naruto shouted a challenge at an eager Temari while Hinata wilted beneath Neji’s glare. Gaara and Shikamaru both looked bored, Gaara with an undercurrent of impatience, and Shikamaru without anything but exhaustion. Lee was grinning and giving her a thumbs up.

_Well, I’ll definitely need to work on my stamina, but my full speed was still better than his with a couple of Gates open. Maybe if I can work out Naruto’s kekkei genkai, that could bolster my chakra supply…_

The Konoha genin were all taken to the hospital after that, where they all received treatment for their injuries. Sakura received a better splint, was handed a pair of crutches, and ordered to let her leg rest for a day and generally not to run for the three days after her knee was finished recovering from her healing session.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Halloween!


	10. Consent is sexy (no jutsu)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Sakura meets Jiraiya.

The following day, the team met up, as much on orders as to make sure that they were all alive. Sasuke was more sullen than usual, informing them brusquely that all the jutsu he had copied were already on record, and he had therefore wasted his time in the exam. Naruto grumbled about how he would be waiting until tomorrow for someone to get rid of Orochimaru’s seal. Sakura, meanwhile, was still sporting a slight limp from her recovering knee and was feeling generally disheartened and tired. Her hand was resting on her knee, cooling it with Hyoton chakra while they waited for Kakashi to arrive.

Kakashi met the three of them on the bridge to their usual training ground about half an hour late, and gestured to the three genin with his book, addressing them, “Alright, kiddies, first things first: Good job staying alive. You all really surpassed my expectations, surviving meeting the problem-child sannin like that! Keep that up! The surviving part, not meeting Orochimaru. Don’t do that again. Sasuke-kun, you are on meditation and chakra control duty for the next month. Your new snake hickey, despite the restraining seal on it, has really set back your fine control, so you will need at least a month of recovery. To assist, a new technique for you to pick up while you regain your control!”

At that, he tossed Sasuke a scroll, and turned to Sakura and Naruto, “You two will be training together for the whole month, under me and another sensei, who knows a fair bit about the styles you’ve been developing so far. Also, since Sakura-chan needs to study your…technique, Naruto-kun, she will need you to demonstrate it for her, and try to teach her how it works. It’ll be a good exercise for both of you, too.”

Sakura and Naruto both looked skeptically at each other, then Kakashi, and Sakura spoke up, “Ah, sensei, that seems like more of a long-term thing, though? I assumed I’d be working on it for a while, given how complicated it seems?”

Naruto broke into the conversation, blushing, “Nah, I’m mostly worried about being rude, ya know? I mean, Konohamaru managed to work out Sexy-no-Jutsu, so I can probably teach you, but learning it…well, it’s kinda pervy, and I don’t wanna be a pervert to you, Sakura.”

Sasuke snorted in the background, stifling a laugh. Sakura raised an eyebrow, “Wait, before we get into _that_ , you managed to teach it to someone? The scroll the Hokage gave me said that nobody had replicated it.”

Naruto scratched the back of his head as he answered, “Ah, well, Konohamaru can only do one form right now, and I can turn into whoever I want! He also has a lot of trouble keeping the jutsu going, though that’s ‘cause he doesn’t have enough chakra yet, I think. Anyway, the R&D people that jiji had me talk to said that they couldn’t get it to stick for them, and they said that I’m the only one who can look however I want with the jutsu, though I dunno why.”

_So, his kekkei genkai lets him maintain the jutsu and modify the results, but it works anyway without it?_

Sakura thought about that, then glanced at Kakashi, who sighed, and said, “Naruto-kun, the reason your jutsu works differently for you is because it depends on your…unique circumstances. The Hokage is asking Sakura-chan to make the jutsu work anyway. I can’t make you talk to her about it, legally. You should tell your teammates, however, and it might make Sakura-chan share some secrets of her own, ne?”

Sakura and Naruto both stared at Kakashi in discomfort and confusion, then glanced at each other, while Sasuke glanced between the two of them. Naruto shrugged, shuffled his feet, and spoke quietly, “I guess I should tell you guys, since you saved my life in the forest. So, uh, I’ve got the Kyuubi in sealed in me, and that makes me a, er, jinchuriki…”

While Sasuke choked in surprise in the background, Sakura’s mind went straight from confusion to shock, and from there directly into overdrive. _Wait, that’s what’s going on? I mean, I guess it makes sense that the Kyuubi would be sealed away in_ someone _, and an actual Uzumaki would be traditional, like the Shodaime Hokage’s wife…Kami, is that why everyone’s parents warned us away from him when we were all little? Hold on, does that mean that to copy his kekkei genkai, you might need the Kyuubi’s chakra!? There’s no way I could deal with something that powerful! Then again, our tasks from the Hokage were pretty much impossible now that I think about it. Sasuke was never going to get enough new jutsu, and Gaara turned out to be pretty much untouchable. Asking me to wave my hands and magic up a bijuu-based bloodline is about on par._

She nodded decisively, then turned to Kakashi, “Sensei, does that mean that I have your permission to discuss the Hyoton with them?”

At Kakashi mixture of a nod and a shrug, she turned back to Naruto and Sasuke, “Since you told me your secret, I’ll tell you guys mine, though Kakashi did order me not to tell anyone, so it’s sort of his secret, too. I didn’t inherit the Hyoton from anybody. I sort of copied it from a scroll that Haku-san had, with Kakashi-sensei’s help, since I had enough chakra control to be able to artificially create that kekkei genkai in myself. I think the Hokage wants me to work out how to copy your kekkei genkai too, Naruto, since the scroll he gave me talks about how your, er, sexy-no-jutsu is an expression of your bloodline. Since you’ve got the Kyuubi, that’s probably at least partially where it comes from.”

There was a moment of silence as the boys absorbed that, Naruto joining Sasuke in his confusion. Sasuke turned back and forth between the two, sighed, and kicked at the dirt. He glanced at Kakashi, who was giving him one of his signature eye-smiles, and then grunted, “Hn, well, I guess it’s my turn. The man I’m going to kill is my brother. He killed my clan, so I’m going to kill him.”

_…Yikes. So that’s who killed the Uchiha._

Kakashi broke in before either of the other two could respond, “Well, now that everyone’s shared, and since I’m pretty sure Sakura-chan has figured it out, I might as well make this clear: you three were given tasks that were flatly impossible on your own, at least in the short term. Gaara is Sunagakure’s jinchuriki, and widely thought to be untouchable. Historically, all the Uchiha agents in the Chunnin Exams acquire two new jutsu at most. Naruto’s kekkei genkai is thought to be the result of the Kyuubi’s chakra mutating the traditional Uzumaki bloodline and is not something that can be manipulated with just chakra control and kekkei genkai research. Each of you was given a task that was more in line with a jonin’s level of skill and experience. The core lesson that the Hokage wanted to teach you three is that you need to ask for help from outside of your team. None of you even tried, and so, I’m laying it out for you.”

Kakashi shook his head, sighing, as Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke all complained at the unfairness of the test. He rapidly slapped all three upside the head with his little orange book, and spoke over them, his voice flat, “Let’s start with the easy one. Sasuke-kun, you should have, at minimum, asked someone, any jonin really, but probably me, to let you look over our enemy jutsu archives so you’d know what we already have. Beyond that, you could have asked me to help you gather the jutsu themselves, or at the very least give you advice, as I’m literally the best jutsu thief in Konoha’s history, per my horrible nickname, ‘The Copy-Nin.’ The Hokage even told you that your job was normally split between many ninja in the past.”

Sasuke glowered at Kakashi and spun on his heel, stomping away from the team. Kakashi let him go, addressing the other Naruto with a sigh “Naruto-kun, I know that you know how to enlist others in your pranks, and you did a decent job using Sakura and Sasuke, but you never even considered asking anyone outside the team to assist. If you want to be the Hokage someday, you _need_ to learn this lesson, because all the Hokage does all day, every day, is ask other people for help with things he can’t do alone. We are going to be working on your leadership skills going forward, because raw charisma alone is _not_ enough.”

He sighed and opened his book as Naruto grumbled but nodded eventually. Without looking up, Kakashi continued, “Sakura-chan, you honestly haven’t reached the point where you _need_ to reach out yet, but you didn’t really come out and ask me for help with Hyoton until I confronted you, and that can’t be the case going forward. Honestly, though, I expected you to work out that your task was almost impossible the night before the exams. The Hokage practically told you to outperform the entire R&D department and you barely questioned it. I expect you to look underneath the underneath. Assume that everything has a second and third layer of meaning, if not more, whenever you are dealing with anything even vaguely important, got it?”

Sakura felt like smacking herself for not seeing it sooner, and answered in a slightly pained voice, “Yes, Kakashi-sensei.”

_I’m supposed to be the smart one. It really is obvious in retrospect, since all I’ve really done before this was read instructions from a scroll and follow them. There was no way I could have done this on my own._

Kakashi dismissed them to return home and rest, with the knowledge that they would be meeting at a different training ground the next day.

***

Kakashi walked up behind Jiraiya’s wiggling butt, from where his eyes were focused on the hole in the hot spring’s wall. For a moment, he contemplated his sensei’s sensei, and how similar his coping mechanisms were to the Toad Sage before him. They both displayed perversion as a mask for pain, regret, and instincts honed too sharp to reveal in public. Without much more thought, Kakashi firmly nodded to himself, hand on his chin, and kicked Jiraiya through the wooden barricade, directly into a crowd of women. How could he resist helping a master in his façade, after all?

After half an hour of feigned pain and artistically acted out attempts to flee, Jiraiya settled in the tree where Kakashi was flicking through the man’s latest novel. Kakashi didn’t glance up, but neatly tilted his head out of the way of the older man’s swipe, as he griped, “If you wanted my attention, you could have asked, brat. Not that I mind getting worked over by an entire crowd of kunoichi, but you lost me a lot of research material there! How am I supposed to write my next book if I lack the inspiration to complete it, kid?”

Kakashi turned the page, still not looking up, “Mah, mah, I couldn’t help but think that since you were supposed to actually join the team meeting this afternoon, you must have lost track of time, Jiraiya-sama. I was simply providing a helpful reminder not to be late next time!”

Jiraiya’s look was dirtier than any of his books (which were, in Kakashi’s expert opinion, actually quite tame), and his response was a huff, before he grumbled, “That’s rich, coming from you. Did you know that Sarutobi’s complained about you in the last eighteen meetings I’ve had with him? You might want to tone down the tardiness a bit before he decides to actually punish you, ya know. Either way, you know full well that I was beneath the bridge the whole time. I needed to gauge them before I dealt with them and getting a grasp on Naruto’s seal doesn’t need me to be looking at it, at this point. I will say that the girl’s chakra control is impressive. She was using Hyoton chakra casually the whole time, and it didn’t flicker when she got upset.”

Kakashi finally looked up at the old man, “Yeah, honestly, I didn’t expect much of her at first, but she showed an interest in stealing kekkei genkai, and I thought, hey why not? All she’s got is her mind and her chakra control, but that was all I, Orochimaru, the Sandaime, or the Nidaime really had to begin with. I was hoping you could help me push her away from Orochimaru’s model with this month of training.”

Jiraiya hummed in acknowledgement, “Sorry about that, by the way. I thought I had him confirmed on the other side of the continent, so I wasn’t around to keep him out this time, and Sarutobi was distracted. This is his, what, fourth attempt on the Uchiha kid? Anyway, why’re you pushing pinky into your old training track? It’s the hardest focus we put ninja into, and she wasn’t slated for it.”

Kakashi laughed bitterly, “I know the original plan for her was medical training or administrative work, but honestly? I’d like an actual student at some point, and I doubt Danzo- _sama_ and his ilk will let anyone promising come my way after this team. Naruto is inevitably going to you before the year is out, and Sasuke’s just too much of a mess at this point to consider. On the other hand, I’m pretty sure I can apprentice Sakura, so long as she keeps meeting my expectations. Kami knows nobody else cares where a civilian-born genin ends up. My one problem is your old teammate messed up my timeline by showing up, and they need a win to keep them from giving up. You said that you might be able to teach her some useful sealing for kekkei genkai theft?”

Jiraiya sighed, “Yeah, sure. Danzo’s still cutting you out for leaving Root, then? I’ll talk to him, maybe he’ll ease up a bit, but honestly, you might not need to worry about him as much now. He decided to support your decision to train pinky as the next generation’s bloodline thief and fast-tracked your request to give her jonin-level access to the kekkei genkai research library. Either way, though, I get it. It’s why I stuck around in Ame after the war, you know? I wanted to train some kids the way I wanted, rather than the way the elders told me to, like with Minato. I wanted to train him for espionage, personally, but they made me stick him on the frontline fuinjutsu track. I was terrified he’d end up in an early grave in the war, like his teammates.”

Kakashi sighed and leaned back, finally putting his book away. He hated and loved reminiscing about Minato with Jiraiya, and now that it had started, they were not going to get anything done for a while. It would probably end with them drinking together again, and if Kakashi were to be honest with himself for once, that might be healthier for both of them than repressing and grieving.

The night was long, but they both woke up in the back alley behind their usual bar ready to deal with the kids, and maybe a little less melancholy than they were before.

***

Sakura spent the following week reading from the R&D scrolls Kakashi had told her she had access to now, recovering from her knee injury, and coping with Naruto’s new sensei, Jiraiya. The man was a disgusting pervert and made her appreciate Kakashi by comparison. She was rapidly approaching the limits of her patience with him, having already made allowances for how important and dangerous the sannin was. Finally, with Naruto’s seal fully repaired and his chakra stabilized, she was ready to try and learn how his signature jutsu worked.

She had read a lot about the previous attempts to deconstruct Naruto’s kekkei genkai, and the effects of the Kyuubi’s chakra in general. According to the eighty scrolls of research notes she forced her way through, initial experimentation took place in the Nidaime Hokage’s labs, followed by the Sandaime’s R&D division for the last forty or so years. This included a laundry list of horrible side-effects to infusing people, seals, and objects with the Kyuubi’s chakra, the most common of which was spontaneous, explosive combustion. Only two successful attempts were listed, both by the Nidaime in partnership with the Shodaime’s wife, Uzumaki Mito, who provided a sealing array that stabilized the bijuu chakra into an implantable ‘seed’ of sorts, which the Nidaime then surgically implanted into test subjects. The issue with both successes is that they were rendered infertile by the procedure, and the success rate was two out of four hundred candidates, the remaining three hundred and ninety-eight of whom suffered from, at minimum, crippled chakra coils. The other key factor, of course, was that all of the Yondaime’s notes on Naruto’s seal, of the few she had access to, stated clearly that the seal was only rated to handle half of the Kyuubi’s chakra in a jinchuriki of ten years or younger, given that it was an incomplete design. From Jiraiya’s explanation, Naruto only held the yang chakra of the bijuu, and that probably seriously altered how it changed his kekkei genkai, possibly alleviating the previous problems.

From her reading, Sakura was beginning to theorize that the Uzumaki kekkei genkai offered a bridge of sorts between an infusion of Kyuubi yang chakra and a stable, reproducible bloodline. She was, therefore, looking at a way to combine the Uzumaki bloodline creation technique with Mito’s sealing arrays, and had already begun compiling a set of tests that could be run on rabbits with a modified array, based on the R&D division’s checklist for testing. All she had to do now was convince Jiraiya to take the time to help her adapt the old sealing arrays to the task of creating a sort of cocoon of the Kyuubi’s yang chakra that someone could then be safely suspended in. Hopefully, this process would cause the chakra to compact into a ‘seed’ of bijuu chakra within the body, while also utilizing the process of ‘bathing’ in chakra that was the key to creating the Uzumaki bloodline. Sakura was pretty sure that the premise was sound, and just needed fine tuning to create a chakra system and body that was as malleable as Naruto’s.

_Now, all I need to test is whether Naruto’s jutsu works how I think it does. If it calls for molding yang chakra, and actively restructuring the body, even temporarily, then I’m probably right. If only he would actually show me how to do it, already!_

Naruto was being cagey about the technique, citing repeatedly that he was afraid of being “pervy” around Sakura, while Kakashi and Jiraiya snickered about it in the background. Sakura finally broke down and asked him directly, “Why did you name the damn thing ‘Sexy-no-Jutsu’ if you didn’t want to sound like a pervert!? It’s right there in the name!”

Naruto blushed and stammered, “B-but that’s literally the name of the book I got the idea out of! It’s about a ninja who uses jutsu to look like a pretty woman, to make people like him, ‘cause they’re all perverts! I’m not the pervert for using it, everyone else is!”

As both older men choked on their laughter in the background, Sakura put her head in her hands, “Naruto, are you telling me that you made this technique based off of an erotic novel, like the ones Kakashi reads all the time?”

Naruto shrugged, “Well, I mean, I guess? I don’t actually know what makes a book ‘erotic’ or ‘sexy’ or whatever, ya know? I just read it ‘cause it was one of the only books that had words I could read when I was younger, and I didn’t have a lot of options…”

Jiraiya guffawed, “Seriously kid? Let me tell you _all_ about erotica! It’s my bread and butter. Why, I do so much research into it, I write it myself! I’ll have you-”

The senbon that had suddenly shot straight through Jiraiya’s foot and sandal, nailing it to the ground, made a faint whistling sound as it left Sakura’s fingers. Her eye was twitching as she shrieked at him, breath misting with freezing water vapor, “Enough! You’ve done nothing but ‘research’ this entire time! I’ve put up with it because I need you for my work, but you will _not_ be corrupting Naruto with your terrible behavior. You start acting perverted around me one more time, one more time, and the next senbon will be between your legs, you understand?”

Kakashi chuckled nervously behind Jiraiya, staring at the senbon impaling his foot, while Jiraiya stared at her open-mouthed, “Mah, Sakura-chan, maybe take a moment to breathe and calm do-”

The next senbon whistled past Kakashi’s ear, as Sakura switched her wrathful gaze to him, “And you! You’re our sensei, and you haven’t made sure that he got at least a basic lecture on sex and seduction? You read enough of this idiot’s trash to be able to explain it to him, after all, Kakashi- _sensei_. It’s your job to check that he knows that stuff before leaving the village _at all_!”

Naruto looked at Sakura with terror on his face, “Don’t stick a senbon in me, but I know what sex is, Sakura! I’m not dumb! I just, ya know, don’t get what really makes something perverted or not?”

Sakura took that moment, as Jiraiya gently eased the spike of metal out of his foot, to center herself before she threw a senbon at someone else. She had only _meant_ to open fire on Jiraiya, after all. Turning back to Naruto, she smiled sweetly, “Naruto, I think I’ve been misjudging you since I first heard of your jutsu in the Academy! Let me explain, being a pervert, like these two, isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It should just be private, is the thing, but Jiraiya and Kakashi are publicly displaying their sexual interests pretty much constantly. Kakashi literally reads porn all the time, despite his masturbatory tendencies being his own business.”

Kakashi spluttered in the background, but Sakura talked over him, pointedly ignoring both older ninja, “Jiraiya, on the other hand, spies on and ogles women. That’s called voyeurism, and it’s gross because it ignores how the women feel about being looked at in private. He’s the kind of pervert my parents told me to run away from when I was little. What makes it bad, in both cases, is the lack of consent. I never agreed to have Kakashi pull out porn in front of me, and neither did you, and that ignores whether or not we _want_ him to be a pervert around us, not that we ever would. I know that the women Jiraiya spies on don’t say that he can, because they’re usually just trying to relax in a bathhouse. That’s why he’s a disgusting pervert!”

Naruto, by the end was nodding along, stroking his chin, and frowned, “But doesn’t that make me a pervert for using Sexy-no-Jutsu? I mean, I’m turning into a naked lady without other people’s permission.”

Sakura shrugged, “I don’t know? You aren’t really doing it to for sexual reasons, so it’s not really perverted, I think?”

Jiraiya finally spoke up at this point, looking up from bandaging his foot, “At risk of getting another new piercing, I’m gonna have to intervene here. No, you aren’t a pervert, Naruto, and frankly, I feel like pinky’s little lecture, aside from being adorably simple and naïve, missed an important part of all this: ninja use sex as a weapon. Seduction is something you’ll both be trained to deal with at chunnin rank and above, and it’s important to remember that any ninja engaging in sexual behavior is _always_ pretending, at least a little bit. A secret that you can’t share with anyone else is that my whole pervert shtick is mostly an act. I spy on people for Konoha, and me poking my head into places I’m not allowed is ignored at least partially because I come off like a horny idiot, rather than a proper spy. I’m not saying you’re necessarily wrong, kid, but you need to cool it with the senbon. Heh, get it? It’s funny because-”

Kakashi stepped forward, directly onto Jiraiya’s injured foot, eliciting a howl of pain, “Yeah, no, enough of that. Sakura-chan’s not wrong that I _should_ have checked more thoroughly that you kids knew the basics on sexual situations. So…I think it’s time I gave you two a talk, although I’ll have to hunt down Sasuke-kun for this later.”

Sakura blanched, while Naruto looked vaguely confused. The next hour was mortifying for both Sakura and Naruto, especially when Jiraiya decided to ‘help’ by reading excerpts from his books. The end result, however, was enlightening, especially for Naruto, who, by the end, had overcome his horror to ask several very pointed questions about anatomy that Sakura realized that he probably never got explained, given his lack of parents.

In the end, Naruto finally explained the way he taught Konohamaru his jutsu: study the shape you want (albeit with some very questionable sources), fix it in your mind, immersing yourself in how it would feel to be in that body, then forming the Ram hand sign. The process was a mirror to the henge, which called for the chakra to be molded before visualizing the illusionary shape. The difficulty lay in how Naruto shaped the chakra while performing the jutsu, as he lacked the vocabulary to explain it. After four hours of trying, producing short-lived transformations far from Sakura’s aim, she realized that Naruto was moving his chakra out of the regular shape of his coils, and instead forcing it to circulate as if in the new body’s shape. When she finally managed it, she was shaking with chakra exhaustion, and glanced at Kakashi and Jiraiya, in her form as an older version of herself, covered by an oversized cloak she had brought to avoid flashing her teammates, “I think I get how his kekkei genkai works. His chakra coils can move within his body, rather than being fixed, and can grow and contract as he needs them to. Holding this jutsu would hurt anybody else after a while, since I’m literally circulating my chakra outside of my coils in places.”

Naruto was too busy clapping at her success to focus on what that meant, so she turned and focused on him as she released the jutsu, “Naruto, I think you don’t actually need the jutsu! If you kept trying to change how your chakra flows for long enough, you would eventually just transform on your own, but without a time limit or chakra expenditure. You could look however you want if you get your chakra control good enough!”

In the background, Jiraiya was rubbing his slightly bristly chin, and interjected, “That makes a lot of sense, what with how his chakra reacted to Orochimaru’s seal. Normally, he wouldn’t have any accessible chakra at all, but instead, it just moved around the sealed area, where the Kyuubi is, and continued on, disrupted, but still functional. His coils must be physically rerouting around the blockage. You think Mito-sama’s old Bijuu Infusion Seal is the key, pinky?”

Sakura nodded as she plopped down, pulling out some sliced, freeze-dried mango, “I think his kekkei genkai is a combination of the Uzumaki high-density chakra coils and the raw malleability of bijuu chakra, specifically the Kyuubi’s. I think we need to adapt it to crystalize the bijuu chakra directly into the chakra network, rather than needing to implant it. It will probably involve a long time spent soaking in refined chakra from the Kyuubi, letting it circulate through the whole body, like the Uzumaki did to alter their chakra, but with bijuu chakra instead of residual human chakra.”

The remaining hour at the training ground was spent in a crash course in how to make and alter seals from Jiraiya, with occasional assistance from Kakashi, when Jiraiya started going over their heads. Sakura realized almost immediately that it would be years before she could personally modify and create the seals she needed to mimic Naruto’s kekkei genkai, but Jiraiya assured her that he would be able to draw up what she needed in a week, and refine it well before the next phase of the exams. Naruto, to Sakura’s surprise, kept up with it as well as she did, for all that he could not actually draw out Jiraiya’s example seals accurately, thanks to his atrocious handwriting. At the end of the session, Kakashi ruffled his hair, and said, “You’re definitely an Uzumaki, all right. I think you if you take the time to keep practicing with Jiraiya, you could follow in your clan’s footsteps and master fuinjutsu.”

Naruto, emboldened by the idea, announced, “Just you wait! I’ll be the best at seals in no time, dattebayo! I’ll be the best with fuinjutsu and ninjutsu ever!”

As Jiraiya held back tears of joy at the announcement and began giving him exercises to get started, Sakura finished gathering her things and headed toward home, with a slight detour. She had promised herself she would stop by the Yamanaka flower shop to thank Ino for her help in the exams, and she finally had time, when Ino was supposed to be there.

Ino was watering the plants at the front of the shop when Sakura arrived, and Sakura approached somewhat cautiously, saying, “Hey, Ino. I, uh, wanted to say thanks for helping in the forest.”

Ino turned, looking surprised, and set down her watering can, wiping her hands on her apron as she answered, “You’re welcome, Sakura, but we’re comrades. I’d do it for any Konoha ninja, you know?”

Sakura shook her head, bowing slightly as she countered, “I know that, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t thank you for it. You probably saved our lives in the forest, and I know you’re the one who splinted my leg, which the doctor said prevented any permanent damage. You deserve thanks, and I also wanted to, er, apologize for how I’ve acted for the last few years. Your friendship was more important than a crush on Sasuke, and I should have been nicer to you, even if we were rivals.”

Ino seemed legitimately shocked at Sakura’s admission, and pulled off the apron, calling into the store, “Mom, I’m gonna run out and grab a bite to eat with Sakura, okay? I’ve watered everything but the lilies!”

With that, Ino hooked Sakura’s arm with her own and dragged her down the street, chattering “Sakura, you’re being way too nice about this! I mean, I’m happy to be friends again, but you would never have apologized for a little name calling back when we graduated! Come on, I suddenly feel like I don’t know my best friend anymore, and the only solution is to go get dango together!”

_Kami, I missed Ino._

The evening was spent chatting about how they were both handling the month-long break, while they both slowly felt each other out about renewing their friendship. Sakura, for her part, found that she had really missed Ino. Where before, they had fought over Sasuke, Sakura had since cooled on the idea of dating him. Sasuke had just treated her worse once she finally caught up to his skill level, acting like she hardly mattered, and Sakura found how friendly he was with Naruto grating as a result. Ino, without Sasuke between them to fight over, seemed amenable to a return to friendship. They ended up agreeing to meet up again in a couple days when they would both be free.

The following two weeks were marked by constant activity for Sakura. When she was not experimenting with sealing, she was performing tests with limited quantities of the Kyuubi’s chakra, as Naruto learned to draw it out. In her spare time, Ino seemed determined to rebuild their friendship, dragging her home to eat, or joining her for dinner with Sakura’s parents most days of the week. Eventually, the time came to use the seal Jiraiya had developed at her direction ten days before the final phase of the exams. The result of all their tests (which had cost twelve unfortunate rabbits their lives and produced a trio of rabbits that now changed their fur color and size seemingly at will, now living in a cage at her parent’s house) was a seal surrounding a hospital bed set up in an R&D medical lab. Naruto had charged the seal with as much of the Kyuubi’s chakra as it could hold, at least four times as much as Sakura estimated her use of it would demand. The bed had an iv-drip set up beside it, and the seal incorporated life support elements to keep her from wasting away while her body adapted to the bijuu chakra. A dozen different researchers and the head of R&D had examined her work with Jiraiya and okayed the first full human trial, with Sakura as the subject, thanks to her combination of high chakra control and a young, flexible chakra system, not to mention her eagerness to try it herself.

_Well, here goes! I’ll only be sort of awake for the next few days, then I should have a version of Naruto’s abilities. I did it, shannaro!_

As her awareness faded and she felt the seal coat her in a bath of the Kyuubi’s chakra, she began synchronizing the rate of her chakra’s circulation with that of the swirling red cocoon covering her body. Time lost its meaning for Sakura as she focused purely on her chakra, enjoying the freedom to manipulate it without the constraint of a limited supply, thanks to the seemingly endless well pouring over and through her from the spiraling web of fuinjutsu beneath her bed. She vaguely noticed Jiraiya, Kakashi, and the various researchers appearing and vanishing around her, but her mind was too lost in the sensations of her chakra to really mark their passing. For the first time in her memory, her world was silent within, as her innermost self devoted herself to her chakra just as the rest of her did. It was simultaneously the most exhausting and satisfying experience of her short life up to that point, and Sakura found annoyance washing over her as the whirl of red faded from view, and the world returned around her, although she could still feel something like the Kyuubi’s chakra in her chakra coils almost like warm water running just under her skin, soothing her and moving within her.

She sat up slowly, blinking heavy eyes as her body ached from its prolonged stillness. Kakashi was seated beside her, and had lowered his book as she stirred, smiling with his visible eye, “Good morning, Sakura-chan! You’re just in time for the exam, sleepyhead.”


	11. If it look like an invasion, and it hurts like and invasion...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sakura shows off, then other problems show up.

The time between waking up and the beginning of the exams was filled with a series of medical examinations, interviews, and tests by the R&D staff. By the end, Sakura’s name had been attached to the new ‘Haruno Kyuubi Kekkei Genkai Creation Method’ and Sakura’s hair had slowly shifted from pink to red to white, and then back to her usual pink, while she had failed to make herself appreciably taller or stronger, although she did not attempt Naruto’s jutsu while her chakra was still settling. She also had roughly twice as much chakra available, although her control had worsened somewhat. She slept well and, upon waking, tested her version of the Sexy-no-Jutsu. It worked with an explosion of icy mist, and when she released the technique, she was wearing a blinding grin on her face.

_Oh, I cannot wait to see Lee’s face when he has to fight_ that _. I’m going to wreck him! Shannaro!_

She got a hug and a kiss on the head from both of her parents on the way out of their house to the arena. There, she was waylaid by both Ino and Naruto at the entrance, both trying to talk over each other. Ino was in the process of elbowing Naruto in the gut to shut him up when Sakura neatly slid between them and separated them, saying, “Sorry for vanishing for nine days like that, but I had to finalize my alterations to Naruto’s, uh, technique.”

Ino looked confused, saying, “You mean his pervert-no-jutsu? I thought that wasn’t really a combat technique, though?”

Naruto chuckled weakly, “Yeah, uh, Sakura got assigned to make it work for other stuff, ya know? Pervy-sage said that it worked, but you’re okay, right, Sakura?”

Sakura smiled slightly and changed her eye color from green to match Ino’s blue mid-blink, eliciting a gasp from Ino and a cheer from Naruto. She answered as her eyes slowly changed back to her usual green, “Yes, Naruto, it worked perfectly. I’m going to blow Lee out of the water.”

***

The stadium was packed with more people than Sakura had ever seen in one place, although she could still pick out Kakashi and Sasuke sitting with the rest of the Jonin sensei and genin teams. All eight of the competitors were lined up in the center of the packed earth arena, and Sakura glanced at Lee, where he was fairly vibrating with excitement beside Neji. After the Hokage signaled for them to begin, the proctor gestured for the others to depart, and Sakura faced Lee in the middle of the Arena. The crowd went quiet as the proctor raised his arm, before shouting, “Begin!”

As their proctor leapt backward, Lee launched himself toward her, opening his mouth to shout at her, and Sakura slammed her hands together into the Ram sign. They had matching grins in the moment before Sakura appeared to vanish in a cloud of glittering mist, which Lee went through as if Sakura were no longer present, emerging covered in a layer of slick ice, and coughing from the sound cold air. As he spun around on his landing Sakura flashed out of the icy fog away from him, hurling a stream of hissing senbon at him in a blur of limbs. Lee, after rapidly yelping in surprise and dodging away and to the side, goggled for a moment at Sakura’s new set of arms sprouting from her sides, performing hand signs below her other arms.

Sakura’s manic grin stretched wider as ice formed beneath her, and she began a second set of hand signs after opening a new packet of senbon for her upper arms to fire. As she circled opposite him on her frozen trail, Lee was dodging like a madman, and clearly having trouble with the constant barrage, before he finally made it to the sparse cover of the trees in the arena, serving as a good shield from the needles. He shouted from cover, “Most youthful! I shall have to match your four arms with four times as much power! Fourth Gate, release! Haaaaaa!”

There was a wave of chakra exploding out from behind the trees as Sakura began a final set of hand signs. Lee sprinted at her with greater speed than she could match, too fast to target with a thrown senbon, but she skated back, nonetheless. The distance between them shrank, Lee literally oozing chakra and shattering the ground beneath his feet in his charge, and as he closed with her, she finished two different strings of hand signs, releasing a pair of Hyoton techniques, and burning through more chakra than she had before Naruto’s kekkei genkai was added to her.

Lee’s fist, cratered the wall beside her as she vanished in a swirl of snow, and the world went white as she cried out, “Hyoton Art: Whiteout!”

When the arena resolved from the small snowstorm that Sakura had unleashed, she was nowhere to be seen, while Lee had ripped his arm free from the hole in the wall, and was casting about to try to find her, shivering in the now freezing air. As he turned toward the center of the arena, his immense chakra supply suddenly cut out and he toppled forward, three senbon neatly lined up in the back of his neck, and Sakura’s hand extended from the snow at his feet.

As the proctor announced her victory, Sakura pulled herself up out of the snow, now back down to two arms, and delicately plucked the needles from Lee’s neck, causing him to startle back into groggy motion. As he rose, clearly somewhat confused, she bowed to him, saying, “Thank you for fight, Lee-san. You almost got me at the end there!”

Lee rubbed the back of his neck, wincing, and returned the bow, still shivering slightly as the snow began to melt around them, “Your technique was most youthful, Sakura-san! I will have to hone my senses further so that you will not evade me so easily next time!”

Together, they made their way out of the arena, as both Hyuuga genin made their way down. The crowd was cheering loudly after the showy back and forth of taijutsu and ninjutsu in the first match.

While Neji and Hinata engaged in what might politely be described as a duel, which Sakura considered to be more along the lines of a deathmatch, she refilled one of her now empty senbon pouches from a storage scroll filled with her backup supplies. As Neji and Hinata tried their level best to slap each other with chakra, she went over her fight with Lee, looking for mistakes.

In retrospect, opening with the Whiteout jutsu in combination with the Hiding in the Snow jutsu could probably have ended the fight before Lee had a chance to escalate, while also keeping her four-armed transformation a secret. At the same time, the combination of those two techniques at once would have eaten up a lot of chakra and time to complete, which would have left her close to helpless if Lee had managed to catch the surprise volley from the snow. As it was, the fight leading up to her final strike had set up the expectation that she would just keep her distance and throw senbon at him head on, like all her public fights so far. Hiding within a foot of him to get a clear knockout shot at his neck was therefore a complete surprise at that point. Lee, on the other hand, had managed to unlock his fourth gate, which meant that he might have been able to take her out at the start of the fight if he had opened with that instead of charging her, at the risk of her plugging him with senbon before he could engage her. All in all, it was a strong showing from both genin, and Sakura was certain that she would need to rely on undermining the footing of her next opponent, given how grounded the footing of the Hyuuga style needed to be for their accuracy. That should showcase an entirely different strategy as well.

In fact, it looked like Hinata had managed to turn the tables on Neji using the ice she had left behind on the field to break his rooted stance. The flurry of chakra covered strikes was broken when Neji’s left foot slipped out from under him and Hinata switched to a closed fist, which impacted cleanly with her cousin’s descending face. The crunch was audible in the raised balcony where the contestants were gathered, and Neji flipped over onto his back, out cold.

Hinata stood frozen, fist extended, and blinked a couple times, clearly surprised that it had worked. As the crowd started to cheer, she seemed to come un-paused, and rushed over to Neji, blushing and stuttering, with her hands fluttering around his face in horror at his thoroughly broken nose. As the medics carried him off, she accompanied them, and Sakura could barely make out her stuttered-out apologies. She could see Hinata’s teammates jumping up and down in the stands, cheering, and tracked to the side to note that the Hyuugas all sitting together were all looking some variation of shocked or incredulous at the outcome.

As Temari leapt out to float down to her match on the back of her fan, Sakura caught Naruto’s arm on his way out, and looked him in the eye, “Remember what Jiraiya said about not setting the stands on fire, okay?”

Naruto guffawed and dashed out, shouting over his shoulder, “You bet, Sakura! I’m way better than I was at the beginning of the month!”

***

From his place opposite her in the arena, Naruto could see the blonde Suna genin wind up with her enormous fan as the proctor ordered them to begin, and he grinned widely. When the blast of cutting wind rushed toward him, he used his simplest wind jutsu to whip up a relatively light gust around himself, causing the rush of chakra infused gale to swirl around him harmlessly, slicing up the ground and wall behind him. He stuck his tongue out at her, and, in his most annoying tone of voice, taunted her, “Puh-lease! You call that a wind jutsu? I’ve had farts stronger than that, girly! I understand, though, not everyone’s all that talented with ninjutsu! I’m sure you're much better with taijutsu if that’s your best ninjutsu.”

With each sentence out of his mouth he could see his opponent’s blood-pressure rising as she unleashed four more slicing squalls in his direction, each stronger than the last, until she finally roared in utter fury, opening her fan fully to reveal the three purple circles, spinning in place. The hurricane that she launched in his direction this time was far larger than he could simply redirect, and so he did not, instead rushing through the seven hand signs to perform Sasuke’s favorite fireball jutsu, which promptly converted all the wind-natured chakra in the air into fire-natured chakra chasing back toward Temari. The resultant blast of heat and light was blinding and hot enough to reduce the sparse trees and grass in the arena to charcoal, and when it cleared, Temari was covered in the ashen remains of her own fan where she had sheltered behind it. She had switched from angry to terrified following the conflagration, and Naruto’s grin hitched a little at the sight of her fear of him.

Sighing softly, he performed his favorite jutsu, and became a dozen of himself, all prepared to release a ninjutsu, saying simply, “Surrender, maybe? I’ve still got plenty of chakra.”

Temari’s eye twitched at the sight of the dozen clones and his untouched appearance, swore, and nodded, raising her arm, “I surrender. Damn it.”

The crowd was relatively quiet in their cheering this time, as very few of the local Konoha citizens cheered for him, but that bothered him a lot less than it used to, given that he could see Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei actually cheering for him, albeit with book in hand in Kakashi’s case. It was nice to have friends, and Naruto had noticed that most of the Konoha ninja in the crowd were at least clapping for him, unlike the civilians, which was the most recognition he had ever had.

As he made his way back up, he clapped Shikamaru on the shoulder, noticing how tense the Nara was under his grip, and grinned. Shikamaru glanced at him sidelong, and Naruto said, “You can do it, Shika! Show ‘em who’s boss! I wanna fight you next round!”

Shikamaru snorted and smirked, but his shoulder remained stiff, “Sorry to burst your bubble, Naruto, but I’ll probably just surrender. What a pain.”

***

From the stands, Sakura watched Shikamaru and Gaara square off against each other, both testing the waters, Gaara with his sand and Shikamaru with his shadows. Naruto reached the balcony as Gaara made his move, launching a massive wave of sand across the arena. Sakura gave her teammate a thumbs up that he returned, and they both settled in to watch the match, although Naruto was busy shouting for Shikamaru to “not be lazy!” and “actually try for once!” Sakura could not help but notice, however, that Shikamaru was rapidly retreating and looking a little desperate.

The end of the fight was as sudden as it was unexpected. Out of nowhere, Shikamaru, Gaara, and all the sand froze in place, and she could barely make out an unbroken pitch-black line running between the two genin, however before Shikamaru could find a way to capitalize on his trap, Gaara appeared to begin bleeding sand from his form, and his eyes visibly rolled back in his head. In that moment, the world seemed to tilt on its axis, and Sakura felt as much as saw a frisson pass through the audience. A vile, coarse feeling abraded her skin as Gaara’s chakra became…unnatural. The sleep-inducing genjutsu that was hidden underneath the sensation of her skin being flayed from within by sandpaper failed to gain any purchase on Sakura, although most of the crowd, including Naruto, slumped over as an unnatural slumber claimed them. She quickly grabbed him, shoved a burst of chakra into his system, and shouted “Kai!” even as she kept her eyes on the now obvious jinchuriki on the ground below.

In the center of the arena, the ground began to grind itself into dust, which rose in a growing mound around Gaara, slowly gaining definition as it grew and grew. Shikamaru, clearly losing his hold on the jinchuriki as the wave of malevolent chakra rolled over him, fled vertically up the side of the arena towards them, only to be assaulted by a leaping ninja wearing a Sunagakure headband. Sakura threw a pair of senbon at him on reflex, and Shikamaru apparently caught him in a shadow the moment he touched the wall, as he froze in place, defying gravity, and received the pair of frozen steel needles in his brainstem. Shikamaru looked sick as he kept going, letting the ninja’s body topple to the sand below.

When he arrived, she was already turning and ducking under the blade of a ninjato-wielding Otogakure ninja while Naruto confusedly stumbled back. In an instant, Shikamaru had trapped the attacker in yet another shadow-bind, and Naruto gathered himself enough to slice the woman’s hands cleanly off with a rapid wind ninjutsu spat from his mouth. As the ninja screamed and fell backward, spraying blood from her severed wrists, Kakashi appeared behind her, his kunai cutting her voice off as it speared her through the neck. He stepped over the new corpse, Sasuke appearing behind him with blood-stained hands, and ordered them in a curt voice, “The village is under attack. Naruto, Sakura, Shikamaru, you three are with Sasuke. Go directly to the Academy and assist with the evacuation. Kill anyone wearing a Suna or Oto headband, but do not pursue fleeing opponents and do not stop to engage in prolonged combat until you reach the Academy. Shikamaru has operational command, and Sasuke has tactical command.”

Without another word he leapt off the balcony toward the now enormous tanuki formed from sand, with Gaara sprouting from its head, only to clash in mid-air with the half-veiled Suna jonin who accompanied their team. Shikamaru, flashed through Konoha sign language, and they arranged themselves with Sasuke on point, flanked by Naruto and Shikamaru, followed by Sakura in the rear. They jumped and ran together as a unit deeper into the village, and Sakura began throwing her senbon at the enemy ninja that Sasuke began to methodically point out, his sharingan darting around. As they made their way further into the village, Naruto began to release clones regularly to help in the ongoing fights they passed.

About five minutes into their run, the walls enclosing the village came down as an enormous three-headed snake rammed into the village proper. At the same moment, the enormous Tanuki that Gaara had become launched itself out of the arena in an impossible jump and landed in an explosion of wind and sand amidst the buildings ahead of them. The brief but violent sandstorm that followed stripped the paint from the walls of the buildings, and the skin from the people who were not already in cover. Sasuke had thankfully directed them to jump through a window when he saw the jump, and they managed to make it in before they were torn apart. While they waited for the sandblast to subside, a poof of smoke heralded the arrival of a small bright orange toad holding a scroll in its mouth, right in front of Naruto. Before anyone could react, Naruto reached out and grabbed it, saying, “Pervy-sage must have sent it. We both use the Toad contract, dattebayo!”

Opening it revealed a complex mess of fuinjutsu, and the toad croaked out, “Jiraiya said ta slap that on the red-haired guy, yanno? He’s busy tryin’ ta save yer Hokage. Better hurry up while ya’ve still got a village!”

Without another word, the toad vanished as it had arrived, in a cloud of smoke, and Shikamaru, nodded, “Mendokuse. I guess we have new priorities, then. I’ll take any ideas for getting in close that aren’t suicide, because while I’m pretty sure you could make it, Sasuke, you probably wouldn’t survive the trip back down.”

Naruto spoke up, “I can summon a really huge toad to keep that big ugly raccoon busy and get us close, but I’ll need to be able to focus and hold still for long enough to gather the chakra. Maybe Sasuke and I can go up on the boss toad, and you two can buy us time? It’ll take a few minutes, and it’ll be pretty obvious.”

Sakura nodded, “I can probably keep them busy for long enough. If you’re going to use your, uh, special chakra reserve, Naruto, it might be better if we expect a lot of attention, though, so all three of us should guard you while you draw it out.”

There was a roar outside and a torn-up building flew by their window landing with a spray of blood and dust. Sasuke gestured outside, “We need to go now. Naruto, start doing your thing, and we can all guard you while we rush the bastard.”

They charged out and proceeded directly toward the towering monster of sand. The thing cackled in a shrieking, deranged voice as it kicked over buildings and spat out enormous wind blasts at the ground around it. As they approached, they saw a dozen battles playing out between ninja amidst the wreckage, occurring at blinding speed, mostly with kunai and sword alongside the liberal use of low-level wind and fire jutsu. Most of the city surrounding Gaara’s enormous bijuu form was either flattened, uprooted, or on fire. When they got close to the blast zone, Naruto began speeding through hand signs while drawing on the Kyuubi’s chakra, causing the air around him to visibly tint orange. The moment it started to be visible, the four genin were immediately targeted with eight kunai from different directions, as well as three individual ninja charging directly at them. Thankfully, all but one of the ninja attacking them were intercepted by friendly Konoha ninja, while Sasuke proceeded to plant a fist squarely inside of the final ninja’s chest cavity when he tried to charge Naruto with his tanto while Sakura and Shikamaru blocked and deflected the projectiles.

As more of the Suna and Oto forces began to converge on them, easily outnumbering the friendly ninja nearby, Naruto slammed his hand down, and suddenly the four of them were on a level with Gaara’s unconscious body, where it was hanging from the bijuu’s head like an enormous zit.

Sakura did her best to hold on for dear life as the enormous toad beneath them ( _is he supposed to be yakuza or something?!?_ ) duked it out in a high-flying and incredibly destructive duel with the sand demon. This culminated, ultimately concluded with Sasuke taking a flying leap from the head of the toad, who was mid-grapple with the bijuu, and tackling Gaara off the monster’s head, apparently managing to attach the seal to Gaara, although Sakura could not follow their exact movements as the tumbled toward the ground, thanks to the explosive sandstorm the bijuu’s collapsing body formed around them. As the pair fell, Sakura leapt off to catch Sasuke, while the giant toad vanished in an explosion of smoke. By the time the smoke had cleared, and she had a chance to regroup with the others, helping her grumpy teammate walk on what was clearly a broken ankle, Gaara had already vanished, and there were none of the invaders to be seen in the area.

Shikamaru led the way back to the academy from there, with Naruto and Sakura supporting Sasuke to avoid any more damage to his ankle. They noted that the Suna and Oto ninja had vacated the village, and that the three-headed snake had vanished as well. On arrival, the four of them were swept up by a group of Jonin and Chunnin guarding the building, and Sasuke was taken aside for immediate medical care while they were ordered to take shelter and rest while they could.

Sakura’s last thought before her head hit the cot which they directed her to was of her worry for her parents. They were at the stadium, after all, and that was where the fighting had begun.


End file.
